C. S. Webb—Notes on a Collecting Trip to N.E. Tanganyika 211



SOME NOTES ON A COLLECTING TRIP TO

N.E. TANGANYIKA


By C. S. Webb


The object of this expedition was to collect alive some of the

rare and local forms of bird-life which inhabit the forests of the

Usambara Mountains in N.E. Tanganyika. The port for this

region is Tanga, some six hours south by steamer from Mombasa.

It is very pleasantly situated and is opposite the island of Pemba,

famed for its cloves. Tanga is the outlet for all the produce of

the Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru districts where large

quantities of sisal and coffee are grown. Much of the intervening

flat country has been cleared of all bush to make way for the

monotonous looking sisal plantations and in many places there

are large rubber plantations which have been abandoned owing

to the unremunerative price of rubber. In both cases this means

the disappearance of nearly all bird-life in the areas concerned.

The Eastern Usambaras are situated about 35 miles east of Tanga,

the highest points being about 4,000 feet, and are covered almost

entirely with magnificent evergreen forests. At Amani, 3,000 feet,

there is an important government agricultural research station

with a large scientific staff, and it was largely owing to their

assistance in many ways that I was able to accomplish so much

in an otherwise hopeless area to collect in.


The birds in general are more interesting to those concerned

with their classification and the study of their habits rather than

to the aviculturist, there being numbers of local forms of dull-

coloured insectivorous birds which would be quite unattractive in

captivity. On the whole birds are distinctly scarce and the

limited number of interesting species coupled with the difficult

nature of the country makes collecting very difficult indeed. It

is almost impossible to go anywhere without a great deal of

climbing as there are no flat stretches at all in these mountains

and unless one sticks to native footpaths, the undergrowth is very

troublesome.



