MAN AND BEAST IN EASTERN 

 ETHIOPIA 



INTRODUCTION 



A STUDY of the distribution of animal life over the 

 globe, especially in regard to birds, has taught zoologists 

 that the division of the Earth into hemispheres and 

 continents is not convenient for their purpose. 



In 1857, Sclater suggested a division of the world 

 from an ornithological point of view into six regions ; 

 Africa, a part of Arabia, and Madagascar constitute the 

 important Ethiopian Region. The revival of the name 

 Ethiopia is a happy event. The ancient Greeks called 

 a large tract of north-eastern Africa Ethiopia ; to them 

 it was a land of magic and mystery. To Europeans 

 in the twentieth century large tracts of the African 

 continent remain mysterious. From a zoological stand- 

 point the Ethiopian Region is one of the most remarkable 

 on the globe. Those parts of it known as the British 

 East Africa Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate 

 (thanks to the Uganda Railway) have been rendered 

 accessible to all men and women interested in the native 

 races of these two countries, as well as the mammalian 

 and avian forms which have lived there almost undis- 

 turbed by man from remote periods. I say undisturbed 

 by man, because it will be obvious to those who visit 

 the great meridional trench known as the Rift Valley 

 that the district has been the seat of volcanic disturb- 

 ance on a stupendous scale within a comparatively 

 recent period. In the immediate vicinity of the valley 



B 



