PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION 



In the present volume I have attempted to do for the big and other 

 game of Africa what has been accomplished in The Game Animals of 

 India, Burma, etc., for those of the chief Asiatic dependencies of the 

 British Empire. The task has, however, been one of far greater 

 magnitude, not only on account of the much larger number of species 

 and races to be dealt with, but from the imperfect state of our know- 

 ledge of no inconsiderable proportion of these, and the uncertainty still 

 existing as to the limitations of species, in contradistinction to local 

 varieties or races. In the main, species have been regarded in as wide 

 a sense as possible ; but in the case of many groups, such as the 

 duikerboks, the time is not yet ripe for anything approaching a final 

 classification, and there can be little doubt that several nominal species 

 will in the future have to take a lower grade. 



The plates have been reduced, with some amendments, from those 

 in the quarto volume issued under the title of The Great a7id Small 

 Game of Africa. I have also made use of such portions of my own 

 contributions to that work as were suitable to the present ; while I have 

 likewise availed myself of the invaluable accounts of the distribution 

 and habits of the various species given in the same volume by African 

 sportsmen. These latter have, however, been condensed to a greater 

 or less degree, and likewise slightly modified in other ways, in order 

 to bring them up to date and to the requirements of this volume. In 

 other respects the work is entirely new, although the accounts of some 

 of the recently described species and races have been reproduced, with 



