ZOOLOGY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The earliest contribution to the Abyssinian fauna was 

 contained in tbe last (fifth) volume of Bruce's Travels. 

 In the original edition of 1790 several plates repre- 

 senting various plants and animals of North-eastern 

 Africa were given, accompanied by descriptions, which, 

 Kke all of Bruce's writings, show great power of obser- 

 vation, though they are occasionally not quite accurate 

 in matters of detail. A few of the drawings of birds 

 brought back by Bruce were described by Buffon and 

 named by Gmelin, but the exact species have in some 

 instances remained obscure. 



In 1814 an additional instalment to our knowledge 

 of the avi-fauna was famished in the appendix to Salt's 

 " Travels in Abyssinia," in which an enumeration of the 

 birds collected was given, and a few of the new forms 

 were described by Lord Stanley. 



After a beginning had thus been made by English 

 .travellers, the field appears to have been abandoned by 



