PREFACE 



Hitherto those interested in the sporting animals of Africa, if thev wished 

 to gain information upon particular species, have been compelled to search 

 through many volumes before they could attain their object. This book is 

 intended to obviate, as far as possible, that defect. Within the following 

 pages will be found details, many of them entirely new, concerning all the 

 more important of the game mammals occurring throughout the length and 

 breadth of Africa. 



It is not claimed for this work that it is complete and final. Africa is 

 not yet fully explored, and although during the last half-century that great 

 continent has yielded up innumerable secrets of zoology, the discoveries 

 of recent years suggest that forms of animal life, at present unknown 

 to science, may still be awaiting the naturalist and the hunter in the 

 remoter and still unknown regions of the interior. It may, however, be 

 claimed that, concerning known species, as much information as it is possible 

 to comprise within the limits of one stout volume is to be found within 

 the following pages. This information has been conveyed in a reasonably 

 popular form, and the non-scientific reader should have little difficulty in 

 laying his finger quickly upon the facts of which he may be in search. 



It should add to the interest of readers to know that the great bulk of 

 the book has been contributed by well-known African sportsmen, who have 

 had intimate personal experience of the animals of which they treat. 

 These experiences have often extended over a space of many years — Mr. 

 Selous, for instance, writes from the stirring memories of a quarter of a 

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