NOTICES OF NEW EOOKS. 315 



The chapter on the Horse, which extends to less than half-a- 

 dozen pages, is the least satisfactory in the volume, and is dis- 

 appointing in view of the enormous amount of material which 

 exists for review and utilization. The succeeding chapters on 

 Asses and Zebras contain more information ; the illustrations 

 by Mr. Frohawk deserve especial commendation. 



Seventeen Trips through Sonud'daiid : a Record of Exploration 

 and Big Game Shooting, 1885 to 1893. With descriptive 

 Notes on the Wild Fauna of the Country. By Capt. H. G. 

 C. Swayne, R.E. Cr. 4to, pp. i-xx, 1-386. With nume- 

 rous illustrations and maps. London : Rowland Ward & 

 Co. 1895. 



Somaliland is the home of most of the African large game, 

 and at the present time affords one of the best and most 

 accessible of hunting grounds. Not many months ago we had 

 occasion to notice Lord Wolverton's ' Five Months' Sport in 

 Somaliland ' (Zool. 1894, p. 275), which we were compelled to 

 characterise as " a mere record of shooting which adds nothing 

 to what was previously known concerning the natural history of 

 the country traversed." The same cannot be said of Captain 

 Swayne's book, which stands upon a very different footing. In 

 the first place the result of no less than seventeen different 

 journeys, undertaken between 1884 and 1893, has placed the 

 author in possession of a far better knowledge of the country 

 than was acquired by his predecessor ; and in the next place his 

 qualifications as an experienced field naturalist enabled him to 

 profit largely by his opportunities. 



There is naturally a considerable sameness in the narratives 

 of African sport and adventure which are published from time to 

 time ; the authors pursue and kill the same species of wild 

 animals — Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, Antelopes, and Zebras ; 

 and we imagine that by this time every conceivable condition 

 under which they may be found, and every possible mode in 

 which they may be killed, has been described with more or less 

 variation. On this part of the subject little can remain to be 

 said. But in regard to the haunts and habits of some of the 

 little-known Antelopes, and the precise limits of their range in 

 Africa, we have still something to learn, and it is in this respect 



