iv INTRODUCTION. 



journal was, at Cape Town, it has now become very 

 scarce, and few complete copies are preserved in libraries 

 at the present time. That from which this reprint has 

 been prepared is in the possession of Professor Newton, 

 and is the one referred to by him in The Ibis for 1868, 

 p. 502. 



In the present volume we have reprinted the ornitho- 

 logical portion only of Sir A. Smith's papers, as they 

 alone immediately concern us. The South African 

 Quarterly Journal, however, contains many notes by him 

 on the Mammals of South Africa besides other subjects. 



In 1834 Sir A. Smith undertook the superintendence 

 of an expedition for exploring Central Africa at the 

 instance of "The Cape of Good Hope Association for 

 Exploring Central Africa," and on his return published 

 a report of his journey.* 



In an Appendix to this Report a number of mammals 

 and birds are described for the first time, and the matter 

 relating to the latter we reproduce here. 



No less than 3379 " skins of new and rare birds " 

 were obtained during the expedition, and at a General 

 Meeting of the Members of the Association, held on the 

 19th March, 1836, Sir John Herschell in the chair, it 

 was resolved, amongst other things, that the rarer part 

 of the collections should not be disposed of by public 

 sale until they had been examined and described, and a 

 committee was appointed to carry out this resolution. 

 This committee resolved, on 23rd March, to reserve the 

 more valuable and interesting portions of the collections 

 for exhibition in Europe, and many of the specimens 

 were stuffed by a Mr. Verreaux of Cape Town " for that 

 purpose. 



* Report of the Expedition for Exploring Central Africa, from 

 the Cape of Good Hope, June 23, 1834, under the superintendence 

 of Dr. A. Smith. Published for the subscribers only. Printed at 

 the Government Gazette Office, Grave Street, Cape Town. 1836. 



