INTRODUCTION. 
S242 
Ir is nearly thirty years since I began the special study of African 
birds. 
During my second visit to Egypt in 1870, I procured a fine series 
of a beautiful little Sun-bird, the first truly Ethiopian species I had yet 
shot; and two years after went, in company with my friend Mr. T. E. 
Buckley, on a visit to the late Governor Ussher at Cape Coast Castle, 
where we succeeded in making a fine collection near that town, Accra, 
and in the Aguapim Mountains. 
I next visited the Cape and Natal, and was greatly assisted in 
the latter place by Mr. T. L. Ayres, son of Mr. Thomas Ayres, who 
has contributed so many interesting articles to ‘The Ibis,’ and who 
accompanied my friend the late Mr, J. S. Jameson in his, last successful, 
journey in Africa, through Mashonaland. 
I soon found that there was an immense amount of work to be done 
with regard to African ornithology, as but little was really known 
concerning the avifauna, which includes many birds of unrivalled 
plumage. Africa may fairly claim to be the metropolis of the Song-birds, 
for the bush resounds with their melody; it is the winter home of a large 
proportion of our most attractive small birds, such as the Nightingale and 
the many Warblers which enliven our English gardens and surrounding 
country in summer, as well as the Swallow, our well-known harbinger 
of spring. 
The ornithology of Africa is by no means exhausted, and we are daily 
extending our knowledge of the Ethiopian Region, and only just beginning 
to appreciate the vastness of its treasures. ‘There must remain many fine 
birds yet to be discovered, for within the last few weeks two very remark- 
able species have come to light: one, a Roller belonging to an entirely 
