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 insight into the rudiments of hunting-craft, together 
with reasonable rifle-practice (since ranges in Africa 
average double those customary elsewhere), are among 
the essentials. 
Abel Chapman. 
Houxty , Wark , 
Northumberland. 
August 1908. 
