On Birds collected in East Africa. 233 



XXIII.— Ow the Birds collected by Mr. F. J. Jackson, F.Z.S., 

 during his recent Expedition to Uganda through the Ter- 

 ritory of the Imperial British East- African Company. 

 By R. BowDLER Sharpe, LL.D., RZ.S., &c. With 

 Notes by the Collector. — Part I. 



(Plates IV.-VI.) 



It is with great pleasure that I lay before the readers of ' The 

 Ibis ' an account of one of the most interesting collections 

 of birds that have ever been sent from Africa. Mr. Jackson 

 is already well known to us from the good scientific work 

 that he has done in the Kilimaudjaro district and on the 

 Lamu coast [cf. Shelley, Ibis, 1888, pp. 287-307). But the 

 present collection comes as quite a surprise upon all students 

 of African Ornithology, for it seems to open up a totally new 

 idea of the affinities of the fauna of this part of the continent. 

 After studying it I am indeed afraid that all our notions as to 

 the existence of definite zoological subregions in Africa will 

 have to be reconsidered. 



The following outline of Mr. Jackson^s route during the 

 journey upon which the present collection was made is slightly 

 ^ abbreviated from the account of it given in the ' Morning 

 Post ' of Jan. 2, 1891 :— 



"^Mr. Jackson started from Mombasa in the summer of 

 1889, and left the important station of Machakos, on the 

 Kikuyu frontier, on the 7tli of August. Machakos is about 

 250 miles from the coast, and is situated in lat. 1 deg. 27 min. 

 south, and long. 37 deg. 20 min. east. Instead of taking the 

 regular route thence by Ngongo, Mr. Jackson shaped his 

 course north-west through the hitherto unattempted Kikuyu 

 country. After crossing the intervenmg undulating grassy 

 plain, the Kikuyu forest — the stronghold of the Wa-Kikuyu — 

 was entered, and to the surprise of the party, ' from the very 

 first the people were most friendly in every way, brought in 

 large quantities of food, and, with one exception, never made 

 an attempt to steal.' Having made 'blood brothers' with 

 the Kikuyu chief, Mr. Jackson marched out of the forest and 

 over ' immense tracts of land which were probably once covered 



