PREFACE vii 



author's honest conviction, and that opinion he has 

 backed by illustrating this work on a scale which, he is 

 told, is not warranted in books of this description. 



A number of the author's own sketches have also 

 been inserted — especially of birds. These are naturally 

 rougher, being merely amateur work. 



In attempting a rude sketch of the bird-life of this 

 little-known Ethiopian region, the author may perhaps 

 have been too bold. The splendid assistance rendered 

 him, both in Africa and at home, by friends who 

 represent the first authority on the subject, to wit, Mr. 

 F. J. Jackson, C.B., Lieut. -Governor of British East 

 Africa, and Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, has encouraged 

 this inclusion of his rough ornithological notes. They 

 are, at least, the first that have hitherto been attempted 

 in a popular sense. As such, they may prove useful to 

 travellers, sportsmen and colonists — as well as to the 

 lay bird-loving public — to all of whom the purely 

 scientific works on this subject (though they represent 

 altogether admirable labour and research) are utterly 

 incomprehensible. 



In conclusion : — British East Africa affords to-day 

 probably the most glorious hunting-field extant, 

 certainly the most accessible, and this book may 

 suggest to some an expedition thereto. They will not 

 be disappointed. No very special personal qualifications 

 are required. Neither the author nor his brother were 

 skilled in African hunting, and the former, it may per- 

 tinently be added, had already long passed the half- 

 century before first setting foot in Equatoria. Naturally 

 an insioiit into the rudiments of huntino-craft, tooether 

 with reasonable rifle-practice (since ranges in Africa 

 average double those customary elsewhere), are among 

 the essentials. 



Abel Chapman. 



Houxty, Wark, 

 Xorthum herland. 

 August 1908. 



