ENT ROMUC TT ON: 
AutHouGH several species of birds from South Africa were known 
to the early writers, and are to be found figured and described in 
the pages of Brisson, and Linneus, Sparrmann, Gmelin, and 
Latham, it was not until the beginning of the present century, when 
Levaillant published his ‘Oiseaux d’ Afrique,” that any connected 
history of the ornithology of Africa was attempted. Levaillant 
resided principally in the southern portion of the Cape Colony, and 
many of his accounts of the habits of the birds. are exceedingly 
good, and evidently taken from personal observation, but it is 
greatly to be regretted that his work contains a large number of 
species introduced into the book as African which are in reality 
; Gebebiteatts of totally different countries ; in fact, on many occasions 
he admits the circumstance. ‘The late M. Jules Verreaux, who 
knew Levaillant personally, told us that it was quite by accident 
that these extraneous species were introduced into his work, that 
his intentions were perfectly honest, but that many of his specimens 
were lost, and were not at his disposal when he wrote his book 
in Europe. He consequently figured many species in his book 
which he fancied that he had seen in Southern Africa, and that he 
had no deliberate intention to deceive. In the case of several species 
which were made up of two or three different kinds of birds, 
Verreaux stoutly held that Levaillant was himself deceived, and that 
he really believed the specimens placed in his hand to be individuals 
of some species which he remembered to have seen in South 
