INTRODUCTION. ix 
Land, where he was unfortunately killed by an elephant. A short 
paper of his with descriptions of new species was published in 1855, 
up to which time we had known nothing of the avifauna of that part 
of South-western Africa, beyond the scanty descriptions of species 
given by Mr. G. R. Waterhouse in the Appendix to Sir J. Alexander’s 
Expedition, and a short paper by Messrs. Strickland and Sclater, 
published in the ‘‘ Contributions to Ornithology” for 1852. Then 
followed a more elaborate essay by Grill on the birds collected by 
Victorin at the Knysna and in the Karroo country ; this was issued 
in 1858. About this date, moreover, several excellent ornithologists 
were hard at work in the South African region. Mr. Layard was 
collecting materials for a history of the Birds of South Africa, 
Mr. Andersson was working well in Damara Land and Namaqua 
Land, Mr. Ayres had commenced his useful labours in Natal, while 
Mr. Monteiro had already begun his career as a naturalist: in 
Angola. Mr. Layard’s energy soon met with an adequate response 
from naturalists both in Europe and at the Cape, and the publication 
of his “ Birds of South Africa,” in the year 1867, will mark for 
ever an epoch in the natural history of the continent; and from 
this book commences the great progress which has lately been made 
in our knowledge of South African ornithology. In deference to 
the intentions of his friend, the late Mr. C. J. Andersson, who 
intended to publish a work on the birds of South-western Africa, 
Mr. Layard confined his researches to the species occurring south 
of the twenty-eighth parallel of south latitude, although he was 
fully aware that this was but an artificial boundary, and not a natural 
one. Mr. Andersson did not suryive to carry out his proposed 
work, but this was undertaken by Mr. J. H. Gurney, who, in 1872, 
produced an excellent edition of Mr. Andersson’s “ Birds of Damara 
Land,” which has been of great assistance to us in the preparation 
of the present work. Mr. Gurney has also published from time to 
time a considerable number of papers on the ornithology of Natal 
b 
