THE



Avicultural Magazine


THE JOURNAL OF THE

AVICULTURAL SOCIETY



Fourth Series.— Vol. XII.—No. 1 .—All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1934



SOME NOTES ON A COLLECTING TRIP

IN KENYA


By G. S. Webb


This was my sixteenth voyage to Africa as a collector, but my first

to Kenya Colony, and although well seasoned to travelling I was

quite thrilled at the prospect of seeing new country, new birds, and

different native tribes. I had previously been to the port of Mombasa

en passant but it is of no great interest, being very hot and steamy

with a cosmopolitan population comprised mostly of Indians, Arabs,

Goannese, and Natives, with a very small percentage of Europeans.

My objective was the far interior where I could come across many new

species of birds which only frequent the mountainous country. With

this object in view, I took the train to Nairobi some 330 miles inland.

It was rather disappointing that the only daily train left Mombasa late

in the afternoon, so that all the low bush country was passed through

.at night. I was very anxious to see such places as Tsavo, where in

the early days when the railway was being built the man-eating lions

completely held up the construction for a time, and were so fearless

that men were attacked and dragged out of the trucks at night. The

whole native population of this district was terrorized until the culprits

were finally shot. It is surprising what havoc a few man-eaters can

play, but fortunately these are few and far between, as the majority

of lions are quite afraid of human beings. Those which develop the



1



