NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF BIEDS 
249 
No vertebrates occurred with these shells, hence their 
age would probably be younger than the Omo river deposits 
north of Lake Eudolf, that have yielded a somewhat similar 
molluscan fauna, but with the addition of Dinotherium and 
other vertebrate remains. The presence of that genus as 
pointed out by Dr. Haug (‘ Trait e de Geologie,’ 1908-11, vol. ii. 
p. 1727), was indicative of the Pontian or Upper Miocene 
period. There are, however, some lacustrine beds near Lake 
Assal, in French Somaliland (formerly regarded as Abyssinia), 
which contain shells also bearing a resemblance to those 
collected by Mr. Parkinson in British East Africa, especially 
Melania tuberculata, Cleopatra bulimoides, Corbicula fluminalis, 
and C. radiata, which are common to both sets of deposits. 
These Lake Assal beds, which are also without vertebrate 
remains, have been identified by Aubry (Bull. Soc. Geol. 
France, ser. 8, vol. xiv., 1885, pp. 206-209), and Pantanelli 
(Atti Soc. Toscana Sci. Nat. Proc.-verb., vol. v., 1887, pp. 204- 
206, and ibid., vol. vi., 1888, p. 169) as of Pliocene age. If, 
from these facts, such widely distant beds can be recognised 
as contemporaneous, then the suggestion may be made that the 
northern half of British East Africa was probably an extensive 
freshwater region during Pliocene times, limited on the north 
by Lake Assal, on the east by Suddidima, on the south by 
Archer’s Post and the Mount Kenya plateau, and on the west 
by Lakes Eudolf, Stefanie, and Marguerite. 
Assistance in the determination of these shells has been 
kindly rendered by Mr. E. A. Smith, I.S.O. 
NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF BIEDS FEOM LAMU AND 
DISTEICT, MADE BY ME. H. J. ALLEN TUENEE 
IN APEIL 1916. 
By V. G. L. van Someren, M.B.O.U. 
The following is a list of the birds collected by Mr. H. J. 
Allen Turner during his safari to Lamu and district. The 
collection contains 886 skins, representing 128 species, and was 
made in April 1916. 
