bo 
SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 
MR. PAUL J. RAINEY’S EAST AFRICAN HUNTING-TRIP 
Mr. Rainey planned a hunting-trip of several months’ duration, 
the principal object of which was to test the possibility of hunting 
lions with American bear-hounds. He offered to present to the Insti- 
tution the natural-history material obtained while he was in the field, 
provided some person skilled in the preservation of specimens for 
scientific purposes could be sent with him. The choice fell on Mr. 
Edmund Heller, who, on account of his extensive experience as one 
of the field naturalists of the Smithsonian African Expedition, was 
well fitted to take charge of any zoological collections that might 
be made. 
The expedition left New York February 18, 1911, and Mr. Heller 
turned homeward from Nairobi, British East Africa, about February 
15, 1912, so that almost exactly a year was spent in the enterprise. 
The route of travel was somewhat to the north and east of that taken 
by the earlier Smithsonian Expedition, and passed through the 
country lying between the northern part of British East Africa and 
southern Abyssinia. 
Arrived at Mombasa, the expedition took its way toward the north, 
across the Gabba Plains district, along the east side of the Horerti and 
Koroli deserts, by the Lorain swamp, and thence along the west side 
of the desert to Nairobi. 
The coast stations of the Uganda railroad were then visited by Mr. 
Heller, and afterwards various localities about Lake Victoria Nyanza. 
The Institution received on September 9, 1911, the first consignment 
of specimens, consisting of some 300 skins of large mammals, 400 
skins of small mammals, and a variety of other zodlogical material. 
Mr. Heller estimated that the collection as a whole would compare 
favorably in size with that made by the Smithsonian African Expedi- 
tion, and that it comprised about 700 skins of large mammals, 4,000 
skins of small mammals, together with a large number of birds and 
reptiles. Most of the material is from regions not covered by the 
earlier expedition, and some of it is from remote localities never 
before visited by naturalists. 
In the first lot of birds received, was found a new species which 
has been described by Dr. E. A. Mearns, under the name of Rainey’s 
Wedge-tailed Sunbird. Other novelties will doubtless be found when 
the whole collection of birds and mammals has been studied. 
