INTRODUCTION. 



THE present volume deals with about one half of the 

 Passerine birds found in that portion of South Africa which 

 lies to the south of the Zambesi and Cunene Rivers. 



In it I have endeavoured to arrange the subject matter in 

 such a manner that a tyro in ornithology may be enabled 

 to identify a specimen with a certain amount of ease and 

 accuracy. The plan and arrangement adopted is based upon 

 that followed by Mr. Eugene Gates in the volumes on 

 "Birds" in the " Fauna of British India," viz., to give a 

 full description, illustrated where necessary, of the characters 

 which define the different genera, followed by a key to the 

 species included in each. Under each species references are 

 given to the author by whom it was first described, to the 

 principal writers on South African ornithology by whom it 

 is mentioned, to the volume of the Catalogue of Birds in the 

 Collection of the British Museum in which it is described, 

 and to Captain Shelley's " Birds of Africa," as well as to a 

 figure, when one exists. 



The majority of the descriptions have been taken from 

 specimens in the collection of the South African Museum at 

 Cape Town, the remainder from examples in the Albany 

 Museum at Grahamstown, the Durban Museum, Natal, and 

 my own collection. A few of the species described are not 

 represented in South African collections, and in these cases I 

 have either consulted the original descriptions or have examined 

 the " type " specimens in the British or Berlin Museums. 



In the descriptions I have to a large extent followed the 

 plan adopted in the Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum, both as regards the feathered regions and the 



