4. Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society ---t- - < ->>l APRIL, 1953. VOL. XXII. Nos. 1 (93) EAST AFRICA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. Patrons. His Excellency The Hon. Sir Evelyn Baring, k.c.m.g., k.c.v.o. Sir Philip Mitchell, k.c.m.g. Sir Henry Moore, k.c.m.g. Air-Vice-Marshall Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, g.c.v.o., k.c.b., C.M.G., D.S.O., A.F.C. « President, Hugh Copley Esq., o.b.e. Vice-President. R. W. Rayner Esq., b.a., a.l.c.t.a. Executive Committee. P. R. O. Bally Esq., Colonel M. H. Cowie, W. Hale Esq., J. S, Karmali Esq., T. Magner Esq., Miss E. J. Blencowe. J. McDonald Esq., C.B.E., D.F.C. Miss M. D. Ball. Secretary. Miss D. Ewing. Hon. Editor, J. G. Williams Esq., m.b.o.u. Hon. Treasurer. W. R. Bowles Esq., Hon. Librarian. R. A. F. Brenan Esq., All correspondence in connection with this Journal should be addressed to The Hon. Secretary, P.O. Box 658, Nairobi. (o7 of the East Africa Natural History Society Journal APRIL, 1953. VOL. XXII. Nos. 1 (93) CONTENTS Page The Water-Holes at Ijara. (Illustrated) By Lord R.C. Percy, H.E. Percy and M.W. Ridley 2 Elephants in the Moonlight By W. H. G. Grant 15 Some East African Hawk Moths (Illustrated) By Lt.-Col. C. H. Stockley 18 Hunting Shells on the Coast of Kenya By Jane Bailey 20 A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns (Illustrated) By William Pulfrey 23 The Introduction of the American Brook Trout {Salvelinus fontinalis) to Kenya. By Hugh Copley, O.B.E. Riverside Dwellers of the White Nile By Mary Myrtle Jaques-Aldridge The House of the Dhow By James Kirkman Obituary 35 (Illustrated) 37 (Illustrated) 40 44 Book Reviews : 46 2 The Water-Holes at Ijara THE WATER-HOLES AT IJARA VOL. XXII NORTHERN PROVINCE, KENYA, by Lord R. C. Percy, H. E. Percy and M. W. Ridley. IN August 1951 the authors went to the Northern Province of Kenya, with the object of collecting birds and other small vertebrates. During this expedition they camped by the village of Ijara from August 21st to 28th. A few general observations on the water-holes in this area, although made over such a short time, may be of interest, especially to those who from time to time have access to the area and can take up the story for other times of the year. Ijara, at 250 ft. above sea level, lies some 100 miles south of Garissa. The Tana River is about 30 miles to the west at its nearest point. The surround- ing country lying in the Acacia-desert grass savannah belt (Edwards 1940) is flat and covered with bush; but 15 miles to the south east the vegetation gradually becomes thicker until country with considerable trees (Acacia- tall grass savannah) is reached. Records for mean annual rainfall are not available, but for Garissa the figure is 10.3 inches. The rain is extremely unevenly distributed, generally occurring in April and November-December and it is probable that this figure will be greater at Ijara because it lies nearer the cost. At times, however, the area is subject to severe drought. During the time spent at Ijara the temperature did not exceed 89° F in the shade. The figure for relative humidity, as might be expected, decreased with the height of the day to around 45%, but there v/as no extreme aridity and sometimes there was dew in the early morning. The bushes were in leaf and at that time formed a refreshing contrast to the arid, sometimes nearly leafless, bush to the north west. The soil is light and sandy, but where rain water has accumulated in depressions or pans, a fine black mud is deposited which cracks on drying out. It was found that 2 inches below the sun-baked surface, the mud was damp and extremely sticky. Dead ostracods and gastropod shells showed that a temporary population of aquatic animals is developed in time of rain In such situations four somewhat more permanent water-holes have been dug out in the interest of a few Somalis who graze their stock at Ijara. In past periods of drought, the few traders comprising the village, with no business, either closed down or carried on for a while by selling imported drums of water. The water-holes are roughly circular or oblong in shape. Water-hole 1 was 6-7 feet deep in the centre with a gradual slope to the sides where the depth varied from 2 ft. at one side to complete shallows in other places. It was dug near a temporary rain pool in 1930-31. Its sides were then more or less sheer to about 6 feet. Up to 1937 it is not known to have dried up, but in subsequent years it is said to have dried up during times of drought, and in the middle of February 1951 about five or six weeks before the rains broke, it is recorded that only a little water was left in a hole in the middle. April 1953 The Water-Holes at Ijara 3 Water-hole 2 was about 9 feet deep at one end and at the other there were shallows. It was dug shortly after water-hole 1, and up to 1937 it never dried up, and has probably not done so since. It appears to be the most per- manent water-hole and it is the only one of the four in which water-lilies NympUaea lotus are growing. They appeared in 1933 and seem to be thriving Water-hole 3 had shallows all round the sides with a miniature swamp of rushes at the north end. The maximum depth at the centre was found to be about 7 feet. It seems to have been dug some time after water-holes 1 and 2. It was observed to be completely dry at the end of February 1951, Water-hole 4 was very shallow round the sides and its maximum depth was 9 feet in the centre. Digging was begun in 1933-34. The water-holes were surrounded by hedges or fences of cut thorn to prevent animals trampling the edges. In places these had been broken down As a further measure of control concrete water troughs had been placed at each. Water-hole 2 did not appear to be much in use, probably because at that time there was plenty of water in the others which may have been more convenient. There was evidence that game drank at all of them ex- cept No. 1, which was nearest the village. Elephant’s footprints were especially conspicuous at No. 4. Some dozen measurments with a B.T.H. Capillator taken at various times on different days gave pH values of around 7.5 for water-holes 2, 3 and 4, and around of the Staff of the British Museum (Natural History), who kindy identified the specimens collected. For draw- ing the map, sincere thanks are due to Mr. D. P. Graham. References. Budgett, J. S. (1901)1 “On the breeding habits of some West-African Fishes, with an account of the External Features in Development of Protop- terus annectens, and a Description of the Larva of Polyterus lapradei” Trans. Zoo. Soc. London 16. 115 Copley, H. Small Mammals of Kenya. Nairobi. Edwards D. C. (1940)1 A Vegetation; Map of Kenya. With particular refer- ence to Grassland Types. Journal of Ecology 28. 377 Goodrich E. S., (1930) Studies oru the Structure and Development of Ver- tebrates. London. Jackson, Sir F. J. J. (1938) The Birds of Kenya Colony and the Uganda Protectorate. London. Swynnerton G. H. and Hayman R. W. (1950J A Check List of the Land Mammals of the Tanganyika Territory and the Zanzibar Protectorate. This Journ. 20 No. 6 and 7 (90). 14 The Water-Holes at Ijara VOL. XXII April, 1953. The Water-Holes at Ijara Plate 1 Vegetation and Inhabitants. Plate 2. The Water-Holes at Ijara VOL. XXII Water-hole I. Y'Jater-hole II. April, 1953. The Water-Holes at Ijara Plate 3 Water-hole II. Water-hole III. Plate 4. The Water-Holes at Ijara VOL. XXII Nest of Juha Little Purple-handed Sunhird. April, 1953. 15 ELEPHANTS IN THE MOONLIGHT by W. H. G. Grant. Early in October this year (1952) I had my first chance after forty years in East Africa of observing wild elephants at very close quarters. My son, who has a roving job in South Masailand, met me in Arusha to take me into camp for one night. His battered safari truck was ready loaded with an equally battered minimum of camp kit. We scorched along the fine Stirling Astaldi tarmac road at a speed which terrified me in view of the vehicle’s condition. At Longido we spent some time depositing hitch-hikers and leaving sundry messages of an official nature; then, already belated, struck the track for Kitumbene Mountain, our destination. This track breaks off the Great North road to the west four miles on the Namanga side of Longido, and for the first 19 miles does just deserve the name of track. After leaving the now abandoned magnesite mine, we drove dead into the setting sun for another 19 miles over a narrow strip of country, from which some of the thorn bushes and larger stones had been cleared. Just at dusk we reached a spot where large Acacia spirocarpa trees and the only green grass seen for many miles, marked the pools at the mouth of the pipeline bringing down the water of the Olgedju Longishu from its gorge four miles up the mountain into the arid steppe. This pipe is a Masai Tribal Authority work of great utility and value. Kitumbene is one of the so aptly named “ Inselberge ” of that grand tract of country between the Rift Valley wall and Kilimanjaro. Some others of these island mountains in their ocean of bush and grassland are Gelai, Burko, Mondul, Essimingor and 01-donyo Lengai. We found a Dutch stock inspector already camped at the pipe line. He had arrived the day before us, and had spent a restless night. He had had no sleep on account of elephants round the camp, and he warned us that we would get none either. At this time of year the country is dry for many miles, except for the little streams which rise in the dwindling forest caps of the mountains. The pipe at Kitumbene ends on a ridge of open bush, and a constant flow of clear, cold water, gushing out, is led by small furrows to a series of artificial ponds dug by Wambulu, employed by the Masai. There was copious spoor, and droppings of elephant and rhinoceros at the ponds; but all round the pipe mouth the ground for 30 to 40 yards was a foot-step mass of elephant dung. This gave one an idea of the numbers that must come to the place every night, and we anticipated an interesting experinece Nor were we disappointed. Fortunately the moon was full and the sky clear. At 9.30 the first arrival was a single rhino; but he was evidently shy and watered well below the camp. Little was seen of him. At 11 p.m. the boys roused us to see a large herd of elephant approach- ing the ponds. These too were suspicious and did not come very close; but for some time were seen clearly silhouetted against the sky. It was 16 Elephants in the Moonlight VOL. XXII about 3 a.m. when the real show began. Again the boys woke us, and hurrying out of bed in pyjamas we found some twenty elephants already in the nearest pond, ten yards behind our tent. They bathed and squelched round in the muddy water, ignoring us, our tents, cars and camp fires. The wind certainly was directly in our favour; but at ten yards range even elephants could not fail to see all the strange objects. Thirst obvi- ously accounted for their fearlessness. There was nothing but a light thorn screen between the herd and us. One cow had a very small calf; it could not have been more than a few days old. She was the only one of the herd who looked like being unpleasant. She spread her ears and advanced a few steps in our direction, but to our relief, thought better of it and moved off with the rest. It seemed that the cattle-fouled ponds were used by the elephants for bathing only; for drinking they wanted only the clean water where it actually left the pipe, or in the furrow heads a few yards from it. Here the herd crowded round, milling and shoving each other in their impatience for a turn at the water. The bright moonlight shone on their great wet bodies, and, seen through glasses, even their eyes were visible. A big bull with one broken tusk (no big ivory was seen) may have been the father of the afore-mentioned baby. I saw its mother lead it up to this bull, who felt the calf over with his trunk, and then lurched away into the dark. I could almost hear him say to the mother “Not a bad young- ster, but do keep him to yourself”. A little later another bull appeared from down wind of the camp; and despite a fire not many yards away, stood to drink at one of the furrows. This animal undoubtedly both winded and saw us all, but must have been so thirsty that he did not care. We put out the fire, and I crept up to within 19 yards of him (measured next morning) as he stood and drank. The water in the furrow was only a couple of inches deep so that the elephant had difficulty in filling his trunk. Having filled it, he lifted his head high, curled the trunk into his mouth and squirted the water in; then, with a still further lift of the head, he swallowed. Between each trunkful the elephant swung his head and forepart round to look at me, his ears out like tent flies, but his feet never lifted from the ground. When satisfied at last, he quietly glided off between the cooking pots left outside the kitchen hut, and disappeared without breaking anything. Next morning before breakfast we took the truck up the mountain track which had been used in laying the pipe line, left it at the intake, and climbed a steep stone-covered ridge to view the forest cap of Kitum- bene through glasses. There is still much fine cedar (Juniperus procera) left; but fires are regularly eating in and it is but a matter of time before the forest is gone. The lifegiving streams will then become irregular in flow, flooding uselessly in the rainy season, and dwindling to a trickle in the dry. Heavy expenditure on the pipe line will then have been in vain, and thousands of acres of grazing below in the steppe will be lost to the Masai. April, 1953 Elephants in the Moonlight 11 Efficient fire protection is the most urgent need, but unfortunately this does not appear to be appreciated by the Masai Administration. Forest guards, fire breaks and early burning are essential, if the Masai of posterity are to inhabit the “ Inselberg ” terrain. My son drove me to Namanga Hotel, where I caught the bus to Nairobi, after an unforgettable experience, which could not be surpassed by an expensive visit to any of the famous game haunts such as Amboseli or Mzima Springs. SHORT NOTES. GREY PHALAROPE IN KENYA. The following note has been received from the Hon. Matthew W. Ridley. “ I think it may be of interest to record that on 17 February 1953 I saw a Grey Phalarope {Phalaropus fulicarius) on Lake Elmenteita. The bird was swimming about near the shore at the southern end of the lake and I watched it at short range and could clearly see the thick bill. Although I have never seen this species before, I know the Red-necked Phalarope very well and am in no doubt about the identification.” This would appear to be the first record of the Grey Phalarope in East Africa, although it occurs in numbers during the northern winter in the Gulf of Aden. — Ed. SPOTTED REDSHANK IN KENYA. On 8 February, 1953, in company with Sir Charles F. Belcher and Mr. A. J. Lewis, I succeeded in collecting a first-winter male Spotted Redshank {Tringa erythropus) on Simini’s Dam, South Kinangop plateau. What was probably the identical bird was observed on the same dam a few weeks previously. In the field the Spotted Redshank (in winter plumage) is not unlike a slim Greenshank in general appearance, but with legs and base of bill bright orange-red; it lacks the Common Redshank’s white wing patch. The call-note of the Spotted Redshank when disturbed is characteristic, a double liquid “ tuoo.” Messrs. Praed and Grant (Birds of Eastern Africa) do not record this species from Kenya Colony. John G. Williams; Coryndon Museum, Nairobi. 18 VoL. XXIl SOME EAST AFRICAN HAWK MOTHS By Lt.-Colonel C. H. Stockley. Hawk Moths had a great attraction for most of us as boys, and in later days continue to interest through their distinctive appear- ance and wide distribution; while their erratic appearances in some years and complete absence in others, whose advantages seem to be similar, give us innumerable minor problems to work out through observa- tion. Thus those of us who carry on collecting outside England find old friends turning up thousands of miles from where we first met with them. In East Africa the number of hawkmoth species is far greater than in England, and I have taken 24 different ones in my garden at the foot of Mount Kenya; most of them are attractive in appearance, and have distinct habits and markings. Thus the big Death’s Head, a skull clearly marked in yellow on its dark brown thorax, is not only an inhabitant of much of the world’s surface but has two colour forms of the caterpillar which feed on different plants, yet the moths which emerge do not differ. Take a caterpillar from a Sodom apple plant, and another from the potato plot, and it hard to believe that they belong to the same species. The larva, pupa and adult are all endowed with the power of making a squeaky, snapping noise, which is quite startling to the novice. The Death’s Head moth, when settled on the bark of a tree, is very difficult to spot, and is a great exponent of protec- tive colouration, its wavy dark and light brown streaks merging with the bark. The caterpillar was very common near Nyeri in 1951, feeding most destructively on potato foliage. The larva of this species and its near relations are easily identified through having a short and rough horn with a kink in it. Two near relations which one is most likely to encounter are Euchloron megaera and Coelonia fulvinotata, each of whom has a rough kinky horn on the caterpillar. E. megaera has deep green forewings and yellow and black hindwings; and although it is commonest near the Coast, I recently bred out a dozen or more of them at Nyeri. I have also reared a number of Coelonia fulvinotata, whose forewings are rather like those of the Death’s Head, but strongly patched with v/hite. The most beautiful of all moths is the Oleander Hawk (Deilephila nerii), which I took in 1936 and never saw again until last year, when I took more on the wing at verbena flowers, and also bred out specimens. It is tinted in waves of dark and light green curves, shaded with grey and pink, the whole looking rather like the “ dazzle ” paintings of a ship protected against submarine attack. Though it is called the Oleander Hawk, I never found either moth or larva on that shrub, but have most often found them on a wild vine. Another hawk moth, Pseudoclanis postica, did not turn up for several years, but then became fairly common. As the caterpillar feeds on new shoots of the commonest jungle tree which edges every road, one would have expected to have come across it much sooner. A large Hawk moth, pleasantly coloured in yellow and grey, its larva has a slender horn, grace- fully curved, and very distinct from the larvae of the first group. The commonest of all our hawk moths, and one of the larger species found in East Africa, is the great grey Convolvulus Hawk, which is blest April 1953. Some East African Hawk-Moths Plate 5 Larva of Convolvulus Haiok-Moth. (Herse convolvuXi). Larva of Fulvous-Marked Hawk-Moth. (Coelonia fulvinotata). Plate 6 Some East African Hawk-Moths VOL. XXII Oleander Hawk-Moth. (Deilephila nerii). Death’s Head Hawk-Moth. (Acherontia atropos). April, 1953. Some East African Hawk-Moths 19 with a sufficient long tongue to enable it to reach the bottom of the nico- tiana flowers, so that a clump of these may have half a dozen grey phan- toms hovering with a deep hum that can be heard a dozen yards away. Their bodies are barred with pink, and any time between sunset and dark a sweep of the net through the tobacco flowers whence this deep hum is heard may secure one or more of them, and the long tongue be examined with profit. Fuchsias in verandah boxes ai’e sure to attract an assortment of “ Striped ” Hawks, whose caterpillars are marked with an “ eye ” behind the head. Many of them come to light and dash about the ceilings of our houses, and far more are taken during daylight, settled inside the house. The larvae are mostly marked along the sides in continuous lines, and not with separate lateral oblique stripes; and the Striped and Silver- striped Hawks of this group are great prizes to be collected occasionally during a fine late summer in England. There are many small hawk moths in East Africa which are not found in England, and have no “ trivial ” names. Some of them are handsomely marked and shaded in red, and one common one, Basiothea medea, has green forewings with orange hindwings, and is very plentiful at verbena and phlox. These are among the earliest sunset hoverers, and at times may even be seen in company with the Hummingbird Hawk Moth, so like our English Macroglossa stellatarum. There is also another day-flier, the pied Leucostrophus hirundo. Our one large and obvious Beehawk is Cephanodes hylax virescens, which is also common in Southern Asia, and is much attracted by statice flowers : a handsome insect, with green and red body. The absence of English names to our hawk moths is a great handicap to beginners; but Mr. Pinhey, our Entomologist at the Cory ndon* Museum, has written an excellent book on the commoner butterflies of Rhodesia, to which he has assigned English names; and I hear that he is about to do the same for East Africa. I hope this is true, for beginners need encour- agement, and to those without a classical education the absence of names in their own tongue is a serious handicap. Brigadier Evans, the world authority on skippers, wrote a most useful book on the butterflies of India, supplying them with English names which he collected from those in use in schools, and furnishing it with a key. It is invaluable, and has enabled many boys to make a sound start with collecting. Let us hope that Mr. Pinhey will be able to do the same for East Africa, though the rearrange- ment of the Coryndon Museum collection, with much new work on the “ life study groups,” has filled his working hours to repletion for the last two years. Perhaps some local entomologist will start on the Hawk moths, and then on the large and handsome Saturniids, whose larvae in some years swarm on our roadside trees. It is even possible to plant part of one’s garden with a view to harbouring both these big groups. For the trees involved are mainly those we already plant for ornamental purposes (e.g. Pepper Tree), while the flowers which attract hawk moths are statice, nicotiana, petunia, phlox, fuchsia and salvia, already welcome settlers anywhere. 20 VOL. XXII HUNTING SHELLS ON THE COAST OF KENYA By Jane Bailey. OFF you go, prepared to get really grubby and damp, with an extra container for minute and breakable shells, and a knife to investi- gate holes in rock and sand; this will save many a sore finger. Now what does your reef offer ? If dead coral and rock abound, search all nooks and corners and turn over anything that is moveable. Small and large cowries should come to light. There are many species of these, most of which are common, but you may find a rare one or two, and these have quite a high value. Small Turbo pyramids, mother of pearl, with pink or cream bases should be here, also the red-brown Cymation, with its outer hairy covering. Above the water line on the rock face you will find the duller shells, such as Limpets, periwinkles, chitons, rock murex, oysters and barnacles; but among these varied types nice specimens can be found. Cockles and mussels love the mud between the rocks and sea, and incidentally, cockles are very thirst quenching; also bi-valves of many kinds and many of the smaller snail types of shell, though most of the latter will have lost their original owners and have been taken over by small hermit crabs. If the reef is fringed with mangrove trees, it is worth looking under the leaves for minute snails attached by sticky threads. If mud and weed or muddy sand abound, look for the foliated murex or spindle shell, with its beautiful branching arms and slender stem. Scallops of every shade can be found, mauve, yellow, brown and bright red are the commonest. The whelk; the fig shell, which is rare and looks just like a fig; the varied scorpion shells; the elephant’s tooth, which is a small slim horn; the Cassis rufa, or cameo shell; large cowries; spined oysters; sundial or Architectonicia shell; hatchet cones with blue or pink interiors and cones are all to be found here. Always investigate lumps of blackness in these parts, for so very often they prove to be lovely shells. Most of the shells in such an area have a muddy coating, especially the cones, which need scraping as soon as they are found. Don’t forget that though most cones are harmless, quite a few of them have a very bad sting, and as a precaution, I pierce the animal as soon as I find it, and never put my hand on the barb which lies at the narrow end of the aperture. Maybe in your wanderings you will find a mauve leathery growth among the flatter rock formations. This always yields good results if you lift up the flaps on the outer edge, for here many a precious specimen takes shelter. Should you have a sandy reef, look for long snaky trails, and dig a knife’s blade down at the trail end. There is generally a small hump showing where the shell has buried itself. This method has been known to produce many a beautifully marked Thereba, or Auger shell, also Turrets and Olives of shades of grey down to chocolate brown. Bubble April, 1953. Hunting Shells on the Coast of Kenya 21 shells, the pure white polinices, large red mitra, a host of minute augers and small transparent shells can be obtained by this method. Living coral is a camouflage for some of the loveliest specimens. Here you will find the harp shells, the white milk cowrie, and don’t forget that the latter covers his whiteness with a black and red spotted mantle, so only a streak of the white shows. Larger cowries also love coral, and it is worth while to turn over any movable coral heads. You may find the mermaid’s ear, which has the appearance of half a shell with holes drilled down its side. These help it to float and exclude a surplus of water. Diving in deep water may produce beautiful trumpet shells or conches; the trochus, which is small in our waters; the African Green Snail, from which Kenya buttons are made; the pearly nautilus, which is very hard to get intact; and the Cassius cornuta, which Kenya people love as a door stop or a lamp holder. Do not collect dead shells unless to keep as a specimen until its live counterpart can be found. Dead shells are useless from a true collector’s point of view. Sunset shells and purple snails can often be collected intact from the shore on an outgoing or incoming tide, especially at Malindi. That rare shell may be awaiting you on the next rock; it did once happen to me; but the best specimens are camouflaged, and are not too difficult to find once one’s eye becomes accustomed to the search. So much for the daylight collecting; but should you wish to go further, take a pressure lamp on the beach at night. Choose a falling low tide, for then the shells are humping out of the ground to feed, and the light also attracts them. It is amazing how many can be collected, but don’t forget to wear strong shoes, as the sea urchins also like to wander round, and maybe the stone fish “bevu” and young sting ray are out taking the night air. So much for collecting, and now you have the shells at home, and they all have to be cleaned ! Don’t lose heart. Pack your bigger specimens in a large box full of sand, and bury the box for four or five days. When you dig it up the smell will be overpowering, but the shells’ inhabitants will have almost rotted, and a good rinse in a deep sea pool should clean them of all matter. If you want to be an expert, save all the opercula, or doors on the animals, scrape them clean and return each inside its correct specimen. Whilst speaking of opercula, it is a help to lever them up from the shell and insert a piece of wood or anything handy into the meat behind, then bury them, for a closely shut shell can hold out for a week as it retains its inside moisture. The next procedure is to place the clean- ed shells in a shady spot for a day or two. The ants will finish any resi- due left inside, and the fresh air will remove any clinging aroma. Smaller shells can be pickled in weak solutions of methylated spirit or formalin without coming to harm. Two days should be sufficient; but your cones, Terebas, and any more of a similar spiral nature, will need a long thin needle or wire inserted to grab the animal’s tail, which always seems to get left behind and causes such unpleasant results. 22 Hunting Shells on the Coast of Kenya VOL. XXII Now that all the shells are clean, boil some diluted Hydrochloric acid, one part acid to three parts water, and dip your shells in the mixture. Beware of dropping your specimens into the acid for only a skeleton will emerge. Have beside you a bowl of fresh water, and change this if it gets dirty. Dip, look and dip again, until you are satisfied, then plunge the shell into the fresh water. Take care that the inside of the shell is kept acid free, a wad of cotton wool helps here; but it must be removed on reaching the fresh water. The acid gives a bloom to your shell, and removes the outer skin from cones. A good collector cleans one cone and keeps another of the same species intact with the skin or epidermis. Your shells, having been dried, are now ready for show case or box. Place a small piece of cotton wool at the base of the aperture for safety’s sake, and the work is done. It’s been hard, and you may wonder if it has been worth while; but forget your specimens for a week, and when you look again you will be very pleased with your work. So good hunting, and above all, good cleaning. Letter to the Editor. FLAMINGOES. Sir, I am trying to collect information on Flamingoes in East Africa, and I would be grateful if I could use your Journal to appeal for any notes on these birds which your readers may like to send. In particular I would be extremely glad to receive information on the following points : 1. The breeding of either Greater or Lesser Flamingoes in East Africa. 2. Records of numbers of Flamingoes occuring on any lakes in East Africa at any time of the year. 3. Any evidence of migration to or from or within East Africa. I should be grateful if information could be sent direct to me. Yours, etc., Sgd. M. W. Ridley, Government House, Nairobi, Kenya Colony. 10th March, 1953. April, 1953. 23 A KENYA ALNOITE AND ASSOCIATED SKARNS* By William Pulfrey. Abstract AXONOTLITE-BEARING alnoite dyke and associated skarns, occur- ing in a limestone near Muhuroni, Kenya, are described. Micro- metric analyses are given and the mode of origin of the rocks discussed. The conclusion is reached that the xonotlite of the alnoite was produced as a result of the assimilation of limestone in the dyke magma, but that the precipitation of melilite was independent of the assimilation. Introduction. Alnoite is a rare basic dyke rock of the lamprophyre family found in alkaline provinces, and characterised by the lack of felspar and the presence of the lime-rich mineral melilite. It has been regarded as the hypabyssal equivalent of melilite basalt lavas, which though rare, are of more common occurrence. The type was first discovered in 1882 on the island of Alno off the Westernorrland coast of Sweden; since then examples have been found at few places throughout the world, and alnoites may be accounted a petrological curiosity. The principal localities where they have been found are Polzen in Bohemia (where the alnoite was called luhite), Winnet in Montana, Avon in Missouri, Turij in North Russia, and monticellite alnoite at Isle Cadieux near Montreal. They vary somewhat in their mineral constitution, but are broadly comparable with the original alnoite, of which a modal analysis is quoted on a later page. Melilite basalts have been described from several localities in Kenya — Mt. Elgon (Prior 1903, p. 250 ; Odman 1930, pp. 481, 489) ; Sigowet Hill, Seget valley. Lower Kedowa river, and Nyando river in the Nandi and Lumbwa districts (Prior 1903, p. 250); and near Fort Ternan station where melilite nephelinite also occurs (Maufe 1908, pp. 47, 49). They have also been discovered more recently by official geologists on the Legetet Estates near Muhoroni, and among the Pleistocene Nyambeni lavas of the Meru district. Dyke rocks containing melilite have, however, been described only from Mount Elgon where Odman (1930, p. 505) found two types, melilite nepheline basalts and bergalites, the latter being allied to the alnoites, but containing neither olivine nor pyroxene, and often having a glassy base. But until recently no true alnoite had been found in Kenya, though a rock allied to alnoite was described by Simmons some years ago from Elgon (1930, p. 39). Towards the end of 1944 the writer discovered a small dyke of alnoite cutting Miocene limestones on the Legetet Estates, near Muhoroni (Fig. 1). The dyke occurs as a few small outcrops on the Northern slope of the limestone hill. *Puhlished hy permission of the Commissioner {Mines and Geology), Kenya. 24 A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns VoL. XXII Fig 1. Map of the limestone outcrops on Legetet Estates showing the position of the alnoite dyke. Exposure is not continuous, but the topographical expression of the dyke, in spite of the few upstanding outcrops, appears to be a shallow depression about 20 feet in width running through the limestone area. On either side of the linear depression the limestone forms low walls, on the northern of which skarns are exposed at the contact of the limestone and the dyke. Lithology. The alnoite is a hard, dark grey rock, with abundant phenocrysts of dark brown biotite up to six mm. in diameter, and less frequent black pyroxene phenocrysts up to three mm. in length. The weathered surface is slightly brownish and rough with numerous small protuberances v/hich are due to the superior resistance of the pyroxene grains to erosion. Some of the joints transecting the rock are lined with white or ironstained calcite. The skarns are somewhat variable according to the amount of silica- tion they have undergone. One specimen (WM 5)* is a dark grey, hard, fine-grained limestone with a li inch wide band crowded with silicate crystals and magnetite grains up to 2h mm. across, and with a more sparse scattering of silicate grains outside the defined band. On weather- ed surfaces the silicate appears dark and often of rounded form, some gi’ains having a suggestion of dodecahedral shape. On fresh surfaces it is black and glassy, or sometimes brownish. Scattered among the dark grains there are also grains of recrystallized calcite up to three mm. in diameter. * Numbers prefixed by WM refer to specimens in the collection of the Geological Survey, Nairobi. April, 1953. A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns 25 Petrography. Thin sections have been made of the alnoite and the proportions of their minerals measured on a recording micrometer with the results quoted below. Analyses of other alnoites are given beside that of the Legetet rock for comparison. The percentages are volumetric. ALNOITES. nepheline WM 1 % 6 A % Tr. B % C % haiiynite — Tr. — — analcite 2 — — — cancrinite Tr. — — — olivine 1 5 11.5===* 15.0 augite 14 17 6.8 13.8 biotite 22 30 36.3 26.1 amphibole 2 — — — melilite (and alteration products) 17 33 'j*** 18.3 garnet Tr. — — — apatite Tr. Tr. 6.9 5.5 magnetite 12 5 j^Q Y*;i:** 9.0 pyrite — Tr. 0.7 — perovskite 4 Tr. 3.4 4.7 xonotlite 20 — — — calcite + * 10 4.9 7.6 S.G. 2.95 *in melilite. **pseudomorphs in serpentine. ***approx. composition Ak 4, Ge 59 WM I. Alnoite. Legetet. Average of two thin sections. A. Alnoite. Stornaset, Alno, Sweden. Johannsen 1938, p. 381. B. Alnoite. North-west of Stornaset, Sweden. von Eckermann, 1948, p. 105. C. Alnoite. South of Hovid, Sweden. von Eckermann, 1948, p. 105. The principal differences between the Legetet rock and the original alnoite will be readily appreciated — there is considerably less melilite and olivine, a larger proportion of magnetite and perovskite, an appreci- able amount of nepheline, and a complete lack of calcite in the matrix, while there is a large proportion of the calcium silicate xonotlite. Some of these differences are not so marked, however, when comparison is made with the von Eckermann analyses. Most recorded alnoites or allied types contain much more olivine than the Legetet specimens, and the presence of xonotlite, which is normally an endogenous mineral found in 26 A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns VOL. XXII limestones near igneous contacts, has not previously been noted in them. On Stansfield’s (1923) classification the present rock would be called a bizardite on account of its nepheline content. It is interesting to find that von Eckermann (1948, pp. 98-110) has described alnoites free of melilite, which has previously been considered as an essential constituent. In some cases however, he shows that melUite has originally figured in the rocks. been replaced by other minerals. SKARNS WM 5 % WM 6 % WM 7 % garnet (large grains) 27.11, _ , A A )■ 31.5 4.4 j 7.1 1, I A ( 8.7 1.6 j 20.31 lOA'r- garnet (granules) magnetite 10.4 10.0 12.1 pyroxene 0.5 Tr. 0.8 biotite — Tr. Tr. apatite 2.1 0.6 2.2 zeolites — Tr. 1.8 analcite* — 1.1 — perovskite Tr. — — calcite (by diff.) 55.5 79.6 52.4** S.G. 3.16 *in a veinlet. **including some hydrated iron oxides. The variation in the size distribution of the garnet in the first and last examples is striking in view of the otherwise similarity of the analyses. It is equally remarkable that the second specimen, though much less silicated than the other two, has an almost identical iron ore content, suggesting that little of the iron introduced during metasomatism has been fixed as iron oxides. This is supported by a chemical analysis of nearby limestones showing 6.06 per cent Fe 2O3, which would yield a little imder 9 per cent of Fe 3O4 (magnetite) on reduction. In thin section the alnoite is a markedly handsome rock with its numerous poikilitic porphyroblasts of biotite (Fig. 2a). The rare olivine is fresh and clearly much replaced by the biotite, or more rarely, the augite, in which it is usually enclosed (Fig 2b). The largest grain was probably not much more than one mm. across, and most appears as rounded granules in biotite. It is colourless and optically positive, i.e. it is an iron-poor chrysolite. The biotite is sensibly uniaxial and has dichroism X pale straw (very rarely patchily light green), Y=Z yellowish brown, sometimes with a pinkish tinge. Most crystals are markedly poikilitic, but rare large crystals have inclusion-free cores, surrounded by intensely poikilitic outer zones. The biotite occasionally April, 1953. A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns 2l fingers minutely into the enclosed melilites. The pyroxene is augite and occurs in crystals up to 3^ mm. in length. Many are roughly idiomorphic, but the faces of the crystals are ragged, and occasional grains have fantas- tic shape indicating extreme corrosion. The crystals are colourless or pale green with weak pleochroism, X almost colourless, Y = Z pale green, or sometimes slightly yellowish. The extinction, Za.c, is 54°, and the optic axial angle estimated from the isogyres is + 2V = 60°, Many crystals have an irregular outer zone with a few degrees difference of extinction from the core, though often there is no difference of colour between the two portions of the crystals. Occasionally crystals are multiple-zoned, again with no colour differentiation. More rarely there are overgrowths, a core crystal having different orientation from apparently similar augite that has enclosed it. Some crystals have narrow oblique zones of poly- synthetic twinning. Many are replaced irregularly at their margins by pale green amphibole. Inclusions consist of iron ore, occasionally nephe- line, and biotite, some crystals being markedly “ sieved ” by the last. On none, however, have biotite coronas developed. Fig 2. Microscope drawings of a thin section of the alnoite, Legetet Estates. WM 1. a. Augite in upper part. The remainder of the field is a poikilitic biotite crystal (wide stipple), enclosing idiomorphic nephelines (white), corroded melilites (central crack and lines), perovskite (heavy borders or heavy stipple), and magnetite crystals and grains. b. Olivine (stipple) enclosed in biotite. The separate fragments of olivine are in optical continuity. 28 A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skams Vol. xxil The melilite occurs as colourless or, when altered, yellowish tablets, which are most conspicuous when enclosed in biotite, though they also occur elsewhere. The melilite rarely encloses nepheline or is enclosed by it, but none was seen included in the augite. Most sections are narrow oblongs, but some rounded hexagonal or irregular basal sections are also present. The oblong sections always exhibit a central basal cleavage, with, at right angles to it, numerous fibres of an alteration product which may be partly juanite, a hydrous lime magnesia alumino-silicate (Larsen and Goranson 1932, p. 354), but which is probably largely calcite, as the rock effervesces patchily with dilute hydrochloric acid though no recognis- able carbonate can be seen in the slides. The degree of replacement by the fibres is variable and is sometimes complete. No peg structures were observed. The crystals vary in size up to 0.3 mm. diameter and 0.03 mm. thickness and are often somewhat corroded, and on occasion intensely. Optically the crystals are negative, and exhibit blue grey or light grey normal interference colours. The maximum birefringence measured was 0.0062, suggesting a composition, in simplest terms, approximating 75 per cent gehlenite, 25 per cent akermanite, and that the molecule is poor in ferrous oxide (Tilley 1929, p. 350). The crystals are apparently unzoned. Nepheline occurs as square, oblong, or more rarely hexagonal idio- morphs, which again, though they occur elsewhere, are most conspicuous when enclosed in biotite. Some crystals in biotite have their edges well- rounded, and others in the xonotlite matrix of the rock are ragged rem- nants of original crystals. Occasionally grains occur in the pyroxene. The prisms generally range up to 0.1 mm. in length and are rarely as much as 0.2 mm. The crystals are clear except for occasional small doubtful inclusions. The xonotlite forms a matrix for the minerals mentioned previously, and occurs as radiate fibrous and tufted aggregates. Optically it is posi- tive with small optic axial angle, and has straight extinction and positive elongation. The birefringence is between 0.010 and 0.015, and the refrac- tive indices lie between 1.56 and 1.61, one being a little over 1.5855. The pervskite is mostly present as sharply idiomorphic octahedra up to about 0.45 mm across, but also as irregular grains up to 0.15 mm. When small it appears colourless, but larger grains are brownish yellow, or rarely the more characteristic pinkish brown tinge of perovskite. It is usu- ally anisotropic though without lamellar twinning; smaller grains appear to be isotropic. Rarely it is enclosed in magnetite, and in one case it was seen to have moulded on nepheline and to have penetrated between that mineral and biotite. Magnetite occurs in grains and octahedra up to 0.1 mm. across, lying in all the other minerals, though often the pyroxenes are devoid of them or have magnetite grains developed only along their edges. Occasionally it occurs as thin seams lining nepheline-biotite contacts, and forms partial coronas around perovskite crystals. Clouds of minute granules are also present in places. Apatite is present as small slender prisms in the biotite and as rarer stouter grains associated with analcite. Only one doubtful April, 1953. A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns 29 grain of garnet was noted — a light brown melanite type, enclosed in biotite. The analcite forms colourless isotropic interstitial patches up to 0.3 mm. across (cf. Bowen 1922, p. 31; von Eckermann 1948, p.99). Associated with the analcite and xonotlite are small patches of a cancnnite-like mineral. It is uniaxial and negative, with moderate bifringence. The remaining mineral of the alnoite is the amphihole, which is fibrous and secondary, and occurs mainly as fringes on the augite, though small isolated tufts and fibrous crystals also lie among the matrix minerals. The colour is variable, pleochroism being X light green, Z pale green or X bluish green, Z light green. The extinction is Zac = 24°. Paragenzsis of the alnoite minerals. Several of the minerals present corroded outlines towards the biotite and there can be no doubt of its late development. The general scheme of crystallization of the various mine- rals may be set out as follows, overlap of the mineral names indicating overlap of their period of formation — The position of the melilite may be contrasted with that of the St. Monique (Quebec) alnoite (Stansfield 1923, p. 437), in which it is represent- ed as being later than the mica, and without idiomorphic shape. In the alnoitic rocks of Polzen melilite crystallized prior to the pyroxene, some- times to its exclusion (Stansfield 1923, p. 449). Minerals of the skarns. The skarns have a much simpler constitution than the alnoite. Textures are granular and crystalloblastic, the carbonate forming a matrix for the other minerals. Much of it is fine-grained granu- lar and dusky, but some has recrystallized as coarse, clear grains. The most striking feature of the garnet is its occurrence in two genera- tions, as megascopic grains, and as minute crystals and grains which often occur as profuse clouds in certain portions of the sections. The granules are yellow or dusky and usually idiomorphic or “rounded,” ranging be- tween 0.006 and 0.03 mm. in diameter. There is occasionally a suggestion that macroscopic garnet grains have been formed by the coalescence of granules. The large grains are variable in shape ranging from idiomor- phic to angular non-idiomorphic. The colour is also variable; most grains have a colour between light yellow and strong yellow, but there are occasional brown crystals and others are colour-zoned. Some grains have incomplete brown borders, but occasional grains have brown cores and rarely crystals have well-developed multiple zoning in browns and yellow- browns. Frequently zoning ends abruptly at the sharp edge of a grain, and it is concluded that many of the grains are fragmental. Fragmenta- tion can be seen in some cases, the spaces left by the parting of fragments olivine augite nepheline melilite perovskite biotite — ? magnetite — xonotlite — cancrinite - analcime 30 A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns Vol. xxil being filled by clear recrystallized calcite. Some of the garnets contain numerous inclusions of apatite or pools of calcite. This is best seen in a large crystal in slide WM 5 in which the incomplete outer pale zone is crowded with apatites, the darker zoned core having few. In another case garnet has penetrated apatite in irregular growths. The refractive index of a specimen of the garnet was kindly determined by Mr. J. F. Robinson of King’s College, Budo, as 1.886 (at 22°C), indicat- ing that it is a yellow andradite (though probably containing a little of the grossularite molecule), and where brown a titaniferous andradite, perhaps in the extreme even melanite. It is mostly isotropic, though occasional grains are birefringent along cracks. The magnetite of the skarns varies from idiomorphic to irregular in shape. Occasional grains have been fractured and subsequently healed by calcite. Some include small apatites and patches of calcite, and are them- selves rarely included in garnet. The pyroxene is scarce, and insufficient is present for accurate deter- mination of its identity, but it is possibly an aegirine-augite, most of it being notably pleochroic from light green to yellow green, though rare grains are almost colourless. The optic axial angle is 80°. Though occasional porphyroblasts remain entire, most of it consists of much- resorbed relics, and some is partly replaced by dusky calcite. One grain in slide WM 6 is surrounded by a corona of garnet granules (cf. Iron Hill uncompahgrite, Larsen 1942, p. 10) and is much darkened by secondary iron ore. Apatite is a common accessory, and is occasionally large. It is often irregular and frequently enclosed in the garnet, but more rarely in mag- netite and pyroxene. Some occurs in pools of recrystallized calcite, and larger grains enclose shreds of calcite. Biotite was found as small crystals, as small aggregates of crystals, and as scattered shreds. The colour is variably light brown or green. Perovskite was noted in only one slide where it occurs as small pinkish brown crystals. The zeolite present is generally indeterminate though possibly in one case, where associated with calcite in a veinlet, it is natrolite. The analcite also occurs in a veinlet. The paragenesis of the main introduced or recrystallized minerals of the skarns appears to be — apatite — pyroxene — magnetite. garnet The possibility of the long-continued crystallization of the garnet is indi- cated by the large zoned crystal containing apatite inclusions mentioned above. Petrogenesis. The question of the mode of development of the alnoite is best approached through that of the skarns. The chemical composition of the unaltered limestones not far from the dyke is known, and may be roughly translated into percentages of minerals as — calcite 85%, hydrated April, 1953. A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns 31 iron oxides and manganese oxides (mainly iron) 9^%, apatite 3%, silicates 2^%. The nature and amount of the materials introduced to form the skarns can be accurately known only when the garnet has been analysed. In view of the minerals formed, however, it can be reasonably assumed that the principal radicles introduced were SiOg and Fe20g. These to- gether with lime from the limestone gave rise to the garnet, carbon dioxide escaping. Titanium must also have been introduced to form the melanitic garnet, as there is little titania in the limestones. It is probable too that a small amount of soda passed from the dyke to its walls, assisting in the formation of the small amount of soda pyroxene and zeolites. The zoning of the garnets of some of the skarns is taken to indicate pulsatory motion of the materials deriving from the dyke. It is also fur- ther indication that the titania required for the more melanitic portions of the crystals was most often not derived by abstraction from the lime- stone. The fragmentation of the larger garnets is considered as having arisen by mechanical disruption of the dyke wall rocks after their formation, followed by recrystallization of much of the surrounding carbonate, so that fractures are no longer visible in it. The resorption and alteration of the pyroxene probably occurred at this stage. The small garnets of the matrix must then have been formed by the fluids from the dyke. An intermediate stage at which fracturing of the walls could occur may pos- sibly be explained by the incidence of metasomatism of the limestone ahead of the dyke and along a Assure up which it was forcing its way, fracturing taking place when the dyke moved up into the already permeat- ed zone. Turning to the alnoite, there is no indication that it did not initially crystallize from an alkaline melt or a mixture of melt and crystals. The presence of a considerable proportion of xonotlite (SCaSiOg.HgO) and perovskite suggests, however, that during emplacement limestone was assimilated. The presence of melilite would also be taken by some authors (e.g. Simmons 1930, p. 40) as indicating that limestone had been assimilat- ed, but as Bowen has shown (1928, p.267), that is not necessarily true. In fact, if it is assumed that the original magma concerned was of a type suitable to crystallize as nepheline basalt, as seems reasonable from the general constitution of the dyke and the nature of lavas of the same volca- nic sequence, there would be sufficient lime available to account for all the melilite. The nepheline basalt of Fort Teman, for example, con- tains 11.96% of CaO (Johannsen 1938, p.343), whereas it can be calculated that the lime in the alnoite, exclusive of that held in xonotlite, is probably not far from 11%. Nevertheless there is no doubt that in some cases the solution of limestone in magmas has led to the production of melilite rocks (Tilley 1929). Bowen (loc. cit. p. 259) has shown that in the case of alndites from Quebec and Montana there is “ no evidence . . . that there was ever a liquid corresponding in bulk composition with the final product.” In the case of the first he indicated that the rock consisted originally mainly of 32 A Kenya Ahioite and Associated Shams VOL. XXII olivine and augite, which were then attacked by an alkaline fluid, in part at least the interstitial liquor, leading to replacement by biotite, monticel- lite, melilite and perovskite. In the present case it seems probable that a similar process has taken place, the alkaline fluid being the residuum after crystallization of olivine and pyroxene, though the possibility of a flux of materials from the parent magma cannot be disregarded. The alnoite must, however, contain roughly the same amount of potash as the nephe- line basalts of the area, and it seems unlikely therefore that an accession of new alkaline liquid was necessary for the reactions to take place, the residual liquors of the original magma being sufficient for the purpose. The process of evolution may be conceived as having taken the follow- ing steps : — 1. The original magma is assumed to have been the equivalent of nepheline basalt, which on intrusion consisted of crystals of olivine and probably pyroxene in a basic alkaline fluid. (It should be noted that the Basement System lies at shallow depth below the Miocene deposits on the Legetet Estates, and the magmas that gave rise to the lavas and dykes must have passed through it, but there is apparently no sign in either the effusives or the dyke that the magmas were affected by it). 2. After emplacement in the lower part of the dyke-chamber augite would continue to crystallize, olivine being resorbed during the process. At the same time the composition of the remaining liquid would become more and more alkaline until nepheline could precipitate. Before nephe- line had completed its crystallization the temperature of the mass was sufficiently decreased for melilite, probably containing an appreciable proportion of the soda-melilite molecule, to begin to precipitate, nepheline and augite being resorbed concurrently. The latter reaction would lead to a re-introduction of magnesia and titania into the liquid, on release from the augite. The liquid remaining would then be a water-bearing solution containing mainly (K, Na)20, AlgOg and SiOg 3. During stage 2 and as the liquid became more alkaline, limestone would be dissolved from the walls of the dyke, leading to an enrichment in lime, most of the COg escaping. 4. At this stage reaction would begin to take place between the already precipitated crystals and the residual liquid. Biotite, as can be seen in the slides, replaced olivine, augite and melilite, and to a less extent nepheline. The reactions may be considered individually as they con- cerned each mineral — a. olivine — biotite would form by the addition of (K, Na)20, AI2O3 and H2O from the liquid, with expulsion of some MgO and FeO. b. augite — biotite would form by the addition of (K, Na)20, AI2O3 MgO and H2O, with the liberation of Si02, CaO, Fe203, and perhaps Ti02 c. melilite — biotite would form by the addition of (K, Na)20, AI2O3 Fe0(Fe203) and H2O, with the liberation of CaO. d. nepheline — biotite would form by the addition of K,0 Fe0(Fe20g) and HjO) with expulsion of NajO and AljOs- April, 1953. A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns 33 No precise evaluation of the net result of these exchanges can be made without knowledge of the chemical compositions of the minerals, and the amounts of each originally present. But it may be reasonably supposed that the solution from stage 3 would now have exhausted its supply of K2O and probably of most of its AI2O3, but would have become still more enriched in CaO, together with enrichment in FeO (FCgOg), SiOg and TiOg there being little change in the Na^o content. The enrichment in silica would account for the intense corrosion of some of the nepheline in the ground-mass of the rock. 5. During the formation of the liquid of stage 4 the passage outwards of SiOg, FeO(FegOg), TiOg, and small amounts of NagO) and possibly a little A1 2O3 in ionic form into the surrounding limestone is postulated. Reac- tion with the minerals of the limestone would lead to the formation of the garnet of the skarns, and the little sodic pyroxene would develop. Early in this process it seems probable that the apatite of the limestone was first brought into solution and then reprecipitated, while at a somewhat later stage the inherent iron oxides were recrystallised as magnetite grains. At the same time magnetite and perovskite would be crystallizing from the liquid in the dyke chamber. 6. From the liquid then consisting largely of a solution of CaO and Si02, the hydrated lime silicate, zonotlite, would precipitate until the solution was largely consumed. 7. The final stage is represented by the crystallization of the remains of the fluid in what “open” spaces remained, the products being concrinite and analcime, principally the latter. A little of the final fluid escaped into the walls where it crystallized as zeolites or as analcime in veinlets. It is assumed in addition that the replacement of pyroxene by hornblende also occurred at this late stage, when the temperature had fallen consider- ably, though there is no positive evidence to indicate in what part of the sequence it falls. Such a process accounts for the unique constitution of the alnoite with its matrix of lime silicate and the constitution of the skarns, and at the same time supports Bowen’s contention that a liquid excessively rich in lime is not essential for the precipitation of melilite. References. Bowen N.L. 1922. Genetic features of the alnoitic rocks at Isle Cadieux, Quebec. Amer. Jour. Sci., 5th ser.. No. 3, pp. 1-34. 1928. The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks. Princeton University Press. Eckermann H. von 1948. The alkaline district of Alno Island. Sver. Geol. Undersok., ser. Ca, No. 36. Stockholm. Johannsen A. 1938. A descriptive petrography of the igneous rocks. Vol 4. Chicago. 34 VOL. XXIl A Kenya Alnoite and Associated Skarns Larsen E.S. 1942 Alkalic rocks of Iron Hill, Gunnison County, Colorado. U.S. Geol. Surv., Prof, paper 197-A. and Goranson E.A. 1932. The deuteric and later alteration of the uncompahgrite of Iron Hill. Colorado. Amer. Min., 17, pp.343- 356. Maufe H.B. 1908. Report relating to the geology of the East Africa Pro- tectorate. Col. Kept. Misc., No. 45, Cd. 3828. London. Odman O.H. 1930. Volcanic rocks of Mt. Elgon in British East Africa. Geol. Foren. Forhandl., Bd. 52, H.4, pp. 455-537. Prior G.T. 1903. Contributions to the petrology of British East Africa. Mineral. Mag., XIII, pp. 238-263. Simmons W.C. 1930. A note on interesting nepheline and melilite rocks from near Mt. Elgon. Ann. Kept. Geol. Survey, Uganda, for 1929, pp. 38-40. Stansfield J. 1923. Nomenclature and relations of the lamprophyres. Geol. Mag., LX, p. 550. 1923. Extensions of the Monteregian petrographical province to the north and north-west. Geol. Mag., LX, pp. 433-453. Tilley C.E. 1929. On melilite as a product of interaction of limestone and basaltic liquid. Geol. Mag. LXVI, pp. 347-353. Nairobi, 1949. April, 1953. 35 TPIE INTRODUCTION OF THE AMERICAN BROOK TROUT (Salvelinus fontinalis) TO KENYA. by HUGH COPLEY. HE American Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is the North American I’epresentative of the British Char, such as the Winder- mere Char (Salvelinus willoughhii). Really all chars can be con- sidered as varieties of the Alpine char (Salvelinus alpinus). The chars can be distinguished from the Brown and rainbow trout by their coloration. The back is dark green becoming lighter on the side, to white on the belly, often flushed with pale pink or yellow. The back is covered with a marbl- ing of short black lines, with sinuous lines of black, or rings on the dorsal fin, while the upper and lower caudal is barred. When swimming the conspicuous white line with a black base is seen on the forward edge of the ventral and anal fins. When ready for spawning the lower parts of the cocks are bright crimson. If identification should be still in doubt, an exam- ination of the vomer bone in the mouth, will settle the question. In the trouts the vomer bone, often called the ploughshare bone, is completely covered with well developed teeth. This bone in the char is broader, shorter and only carries teeth at the end nearest the throat. The reason for the introduction of this fish was as follows: There are in Kenya quite a number of farm dams situated from 7000 to 9000 feet above sea level which are rain fed, or fed by a small stream only running for a few months in the year. The water in these dams is far too cold to support a population of Tilapias. Also, since they have no access to gravel spawning grounds, trout in such dams will grow but will not spawn, often dying off when spawn-bound. In an article in a Swedish paper it was stated that in a number of lakes in Sweden char would spawn on the muddy side and the ova would survive and keep the lake stocked. Such a fish was just the answer to our problems, so we immediately got into touch with D. F. Leney Esq., of the Surrey Trout Farm, Haslemere, enquir- ing whether any eyed ova, could be procured. Finally some American Char were found at the Wraymires Hatchery of the British Freshwater Research- Station, Windermere. We were promised 2000 of these ova when the fish were stripped, if we would make all arrangements for getting them out. Mr. Leney took over all that part of the w'ork, and the eyed ova came out to Kenya with the usual consignment of Brown and Rainbow ova in January 1949. They were hatched out in a Kashmire box, and by the time the Hatchery Superintendant arrived in March we had 1,731 fingerlings for him to look after. It was noticeable that these fingerlings would not take boiled egg yolk or fish, like the brown and rainbow fingerling; but would only take liver. We had a disaster in April when we lost 648 fingerlings choked by silt carried down by the river. At the end of December, 1949, we had 100 fish in the rearing ponds. We found the American char a far more delicate fish to raise than either brown or rainbow trout. 36 American Brook Trout Introduction VOL. XXII During 1949 we moved 151 American char to three stations for experi- mental purposes. Mr. Morson let us stock his dam at 01 Joro Orok with 44 fingerlings. and Mr. Baxendale lent us one of his dams, and this was stock- ed with seven fish on the 14th December, 1949. The main experiment, however, was made in Lake Hohnel at 14,000 ft. on Mount Kenya. If they did survive and produce stock, the idea was to stock all the high altitude rivers and tarns on Mount Kenya ready for the time when this area would be declared a national Park. On the 1st of September, 1949, the Hatchery Superintendant, Mr. Martindale, started off with teh debes each containing ten American char 3" long; two debes to a mule. The highest limit of the bamboos was reached at 14.30 hrs. and the debes were off loaded and placed in a moun- tain stream. After the water had been equalised, the fish were placed in two holding baskets, and left there for the night. The temperature of the stream water was 5LF. The following morning the fish were replaced in the debes, and Lake Hohnel was reached at 17.30 hours on the 2nd, Septe- mber, and 99 fish out of the 100 were safely released in the waters of the lake, which had a temperature of 51 °F. On the morning of the 3rd Septe- mber two fish were seen feeding happily in the shallows. The lake was closed to all fishing. The 100 fish left in the rearing ponds at the Research Station grew well, just as well as the Shasta rainbows. On the 13th July, 1950, two females were found to be ripe and were stripped. This early ripening of the hens was a surprise, as the brown and rainbow trout of the same age would not ripen until their second year. In England and America these fish do not ripen until their third or fourth year. In all seven fish were stripped, yielding 242 fry in December, which were moved to the rearing ponds. All fish gave good ova in small quantities; but the cock fish gave very little milt. In 1951 the great majority of the hens were spawn-bound, and only two hens gave a few ova each. The cocks also gave very little milt. We have a very few fingerlings left. Our experience is the same as that of German hatcheries — the first stripping is successful but subsequent strippings are of very little value. On the 27th September, 1952, the Hatchery Superintendent went up to Lake Hohnel to see what was doing there. Although he could not catch a fish, yet he saw about five large fish rising. He saw no small fish nor any signs of spawning; but he found a dead hen fish, approximately 2J lbs. in weight, which had died owing to becoming spawn bound. It can safely be said that the results of this importation are a failure owing to some defect in the environment. Dr. V. van Someren is of the opinion that the relative hours of light and darkness are wrong; i.e. that the fish get no winter periods, with short hours of day-light coupled with too high a water temperature. This failure is a great pity, as the American char is a bold, handsome fish, which would have filled an empty niche in the sporting fish of this Colony. April, 1953. 37 RIVERSIDE DWELLERS OF THE WHITE NILE hy Mary Myrtle J aques- Aldridge In the vast, steamy swamps which border the White Nile on its way through the Sudan are found various Nilotic tribes, and it is strange to reflect that it was not until three-quarters of the way through the nine- teenth century that any reliable linformaion at all concerning them existed. Much remains to be learned. The East bank is inhabited by the Dinka, the largest of the Nilotic tribes, while the Shilluk are found on the West bank. The Nuer occupy both banks of the river. All these tribes dwell in beautifully thatched, circular huts — many raised on piles above the swampy ground. The territory of the Dinka extends over a vast area. It is everywhere flat, and largely swamp in the wet season — a terrain hard on man and beast. Totemism is strongly developed among these Dinka, i.e. the belief in a special relationship between a family group, or clan, and a certain animal, plant or other object. In the case of the Dinka the totem is usually an animal. If, for example, it is a crocodile, then the people of the group whose totem it is regard themselves as bound to the crocodile by ties corresponding to those of human kinship. It is tabu for any man to injure his totem animal, and many Dinka speak of it as their ancestor and refer to it in terms identical with those used for human relatives. And what do they look like, these Dinka? In common with the other Nilotic tribes they are jet black and the men are unusually tall — about six feet three or four inches; some have been known to attain a height of seven feet. They are very thin, with spindly legs. Sometimes they look really terrifying, their faces daubed with white paint — war paint — wearing large earrings and carrying enormously long, sharp-looking spears. It is easy to believe that these warriors have no difficulty in striking their adversaries with terror. Their* manners, however, are some- times amazingly at variance with their ferocious aspect as, if one asks to take their photograph, they will giggle bashfully and pose charmingly — and then ask for baksheesh. Some of the women wear silver bracelets from wrist to elbow, some- times as many as thirty-nine on each arm. Others wear little or no jewe- llery and are clad in very drab-looking garments. These are probably married women as, once wed, they have no need to try and catch the eye of eligible young men and they relinquish their finery to their families and it may, perhaps, be worn by a younger sister when she reaches marriageable age. The Shilluk, not nearly such a large tribe, unlike their neighbours across the river, who recognise no supreme chief, have a king who is absolute head and rules by divine right as direct descendant of Nyakong, the first Shilluk king. Like the Dinka they worship chiefly the spirits of their ancestors and, again like the Dinka, the Rainmaker is the most important member of the community. He has absolute authority and is recognised as being the earthly abode of the spirit of a great ancestor. When the Rainmaker becomes old, however, he is either buried alive or strangled and a new one elected. 38 Riverside Dwellers of the White Nile VOL. XXII The Shilluk have the reputation of being the best craftsmen of the river bank portion of the Sudan, for they are excellent thatchers and iron-workers. Beside canoes they use small rafts made of reed which resemble almost exactly those used by the ancient Egyptians. This would seem to support the theory that the Egyptians did, in fact, migrate South up the Nile. The men of this tribe sometimes have a row of round scars, often very raised, like a string of beads, from ear to ear across their foreheads. Apparently these tribal marks are made at the age of about six years and the process of achieving them is primitive in the extreme. A series of punctures is first made with a fish-hook, perhaps with the string attached, just as it has been used for fishing. Then a half-moon shaped incision is cut with a short, sharp knife, from one end of the fish hook punctures to the other. The blood runs down into the eyes, and is said to have a beneficial effect upon them and to cure all eye troubles, to which the natives are very subject. Soot, generally obtained from the bottom of a cooking pot, is finally rubbed into the wounds. The process may be repeated at intervals, as many as four or five times, until the desired scar effect is obtained. The Nuer people are of the same common origin as the Dinka, who they despise for, they say with contempt, when they set out to raid the Dinka they leave their shields at home. Their system of totemism is identical with that of their Dinka neighbours, but they recognise no divine king, as do the Shilluk, and the Rainmaker has far less ritual importance. Instead they have a land chief who gives judgement in disputes, in collaboration with the old men. Like the other Nilotes, much importance is attached to cicatrisation and their foreheads are deeply scarred by six horizontal lines, like exag- gerated frown furrows. The incisions producing these scars are made on a scale not found in other peoples and have far greater social signifi- cance, for they form the basis of the initiation ceremonies. Parents, friends and even young girls may be present at these cere- monies which are conducted in the following manner. The boy lies on his back with his head, shaved and annointed with grease, over a hole which has been dug to catch the blood. The operator squats at his right side and, with a small sharp blade, cuts outwards from the centre of the forehead, above the eyebrows up to well over the right ear, down tO' the bone. This is the main incision and is the most painful, as it severs the supra-orbital nerve. The next incision is made about a centimeter above the first, and so on, until six more or less parallel lines have been com- pleted. The left side of the forehead is then treated in the same way. Great importance is attached to the boy showing himself courgeous, and they generally submit to this most painful operation with almost unbeliev- able fortitude. It would appear that this ceremony takes the place of the circumcision ceremonies of the East African tribes. Some of the Nuer cattle present a very curious appearance, for they have the left horn trained across the forehead, while the right is trained to point upwards, in exactly the same way as those depicted in the April, 1953. Riverside Dwellers of the White Nile Plate 7 the forehead. Dinka — wood-ash covering against insects 39 April, 1953. Riverside Dvoellers of the White Nile ancient Egyptian wall-reliefs in some of the tombs of Sakkara — another indication of the migration South of the ancient Egyptians. It is habitual for these Nilotic tribes to go naked, their only adorn- ment being beads — perhaps a string round the neck and another of the same colour round the waist. The fashion in the colours of the beads changes every few years. Many saunter about smoking long pipes, and the combination of nudity and a pipe is extraordinary. Many smear themselves liberally with wood ash as protection against the stings of insects. The various hair styles of these people are very unusal. Some emp- hasise the hair-line with a band of orange chalk, probably brick dust, while others render their naturally frizzy hair quite straight, so that it stands out like a halo, and at the same time dye it red. This effect is achieved by plastering the hair and scalp with cow-dung, tying it up in a piece of cloth and leaving it for about three months. There daub a kind of white paste over their heads, the hair sticking up in tiny isolated knobs all over the scalp. The women of the tribes, like the men, frequently go about comple- tely naked. Some present a very startling appearance, with their heads shaved except for a strip of longish black hair running from their fore- heads across the top of their heads to the nape of the neck. The shaved portion is dyed red. Some wear small, thick, silver rings through their upper lips, and the variety of ornament seems infinite-bracelets formed from a round section of elephant or hippo tusk; strange necklaces of beads made from large seed-pods bound together with elephant hair; and some wear huge safety-pins through, their ears. One fashion among these riverside dwellers is particularly ugly, as well as most impractical. The upper front teeth are wedged in early childhood in such a way that they protrude from the gums at an angle of about ninety degrees. In addition they are sometimes filed too sharp points. These malformed teeth are a much coveted aid to beauty. Many, man and women alike, possess a most pungent and unpleasant odour, due to their habit of bathing themselves in cow urine. They wash all their cooking utensils in cow urine too, and this acts not only as an antiseptic, but it makes up for the absence of salt in their diet. Those who have spent their lives among these primitive Nilotic tribes have, perhaps unwillingly, been convinced that it is foolish to assume that every Pagan custom is rooted in savage ignorance and marked by complete disregard for all moral issues. The point of view of such people, as well as their reasoning, will of course be strange to Western ways of thought. There is ignorance, bigotary, and callousness* without a doubt. Many have been surprised however, at the fundamental similarity of outlook of black and white on major issues. To both it seems foolish to deny the existence of a Creator Deity; and the faith of the black is, in all probability, more vivid and unquestioning. To both justice is an ideal and the maintenances of law and order among a community desirable, if not essential. 40 VoL. XXII THE HOUSE OF THE DHOW. by JAMES KIRKMAN. The private houses of Gedi, lying between the Palace and the east boundary wall of the city, follow a standard plan consisting of a sunken forecourt and a long front room with doors leading into two suites of two rooms each. The structure known as the House of the Dhow, which was excavated last year, follows the traditional plan, but with the addition of an inner court. Part of this building goes back at least to the beginning of the period of rehabilitation of the city in the early 15th centruy. It remain- ed in occupation until the end of the 16thi century, when, from the absence of characteristic late ceramic types, it appears to have been abandoned, rather before the end of the life of the city. During this span of two hundred years it underwent alterations and additions, reflecting vividly the vicissitudes of a builiding lived in by generations, each with their needs and problems. Finally, as “the conclusion of the matter”, the large tomb was built at the north-east corner of the building where the last owner rests undisturbed. This is the tomb of the Sharif Hasan Saidi bin Abdullah, incidentally the only tomb at Gedi with a name that has not been for- gotten. There are traces of an inscription made in the wet plaster of the tomb, but they are now too worn to be legible. Below the house, traces of sub-structural occupation were found, similar to the sub-structural occupation below the mosque at Kilepwa. The original house seems to have consisted of two series of rooms, but this building was soon converted into the characteristic Gedi house with the triple series of rooms. The entrance was at the south end of a long sunken court or “ukumbi” with a platform in front of the facade of the house. From the platform, doors led into the house and an inner court. At the other end of the long front room was a lavatory with a carefully plastered pit, 27 ft. deep, and a bench and seat for washing. Behind were two rooms, the last with internal pilasters at the outside corners and a platform raised about a foot from the ground, on which the sleeping mat would be laid. The inner court, which was used as the “haramlik”, or women’s salon, had also three rooms behind it. This large house was subsequently converted into two by the block- ing of the doorway between the courts, the opening of a doorway in the outer wall of the inner court, and the construction of another lavatory at the end of the front room. At the same time another residence was built, consisting of rear and side rooms taken from the old house, to which was added a long room with a narrow sunken court-yard in front of it. The single small bedroom of the new house has the sleeping platform and was entered originally by a door with a high sill which was reached by a wooden step. Other examples have been found at Gedi of this type of interior doorway, which was particularly approved for bedrooms. Behind April, 1953. The House of the Dhow Plate 8 Views of Gedi and Some Recent Finds April, 1953. The House of the Dhoio 41 this room was a chamber without a door, entered by a trap door below the ceiling, which was a store. These chambers with access from a bed- room exist in all the houses at Gedi, and it is probable that their primary purpose was to keep the bags of cowries which were the currency. The new house was sandwiched between the large house described above and another house which has not been excavated. At the side of the new house is an open court or enclosure used as a store, or, less likely, as a lock-up for slaves at night. It is entered beneath a tall arch and on the inside is a platform, about six inches above the main level of thp court. In the wet plaster of the walls of Rooms H and D rough pictures were incised. The sketches in Room H portraying kites and a. bird, possibly an ostrich, are the artless scrawlings of children, of more interest to psycho- logists than archaeologists! But the third, on the wall of Room D, is a conscious work of art and is a recording of an actual event — ■ the launch- ing a dhow, perhaps the “bon aventure” that paid for the house. The picture has unfortunately deteriorated and the drawing has been made with the help of a photograph taken some years ago by Mr. Colin Campbell of Kericho. The roofs of the middle series of rooms and the lavatories Z and AB were of coral tiles; the other rooms seem to have had red earth and rub- ble roofs. This is contrary to the normal practice, which is to pay more attention to the outer than the inner rooms of the house. The most interesting find archaeologically was the rim of a large bowl with both ribbed and incised decoration. This sherd came from a cutting outside the east wall of the inner court A.l, and belonged to the sub- structural level. It is the only sherd so far found at Gedi in which the ceramic features of the inhabitants of the Gedi area before the coming of the Arabs are combined with those of the new arrivals. In this level were also found sherds of a number of large-shouldred bowls and bowls with in-curved rims and a dark crimson paint on the inside, which were common at Kilepwa, but which have been scarce at Gedi. Some of the finds are shown on Plate 8. At the top is an, iron point, perhaps a fish-spear. Below this is a plasterer’s trowel, which was found at the bottom of the lavatory shaft, and two copper bracelets. The trowel was made at latest in the 16th century; but would have caused little comment if seen in a mason’s hand to-day ! The two sherds of porce- lain are: left, a sherd of a celadon dish with fish embossed on base; and right, a section from rim to base of a, small blue and white bowl with a broad band of formal decoration below the rim. The pattern is outlined in dark blue, and it can be dated to' the middle of the sixteenth century. The two ivory pommels between the sherds were found on the floor of Room H. The ivory necklace includes more than 150 beads, and came from the bottom of the lavatory shaft in Room Z. It must have been deliber- ately thrown in, perhaps to get somebody into trouble. There is no reason to suppose that “fitina” was any less common in the 16th century than it is today. HOUSE OF THE DHOW House of the Dhow VOL. XXII 42 44 VoL. XXII OBITUARY MOLONY — On 22nd August 1952 the death occurred of the Hon. Mrs. Evelyn Molony who, as Miss Napier, was the first Botanist employed by the Coryndon Museum, where she worked from 1930 to 1934. Miss Napier had always been interested in botany, and after her ai'rival in Kenya in 1922 she used to draw and paint wild flowers for her own amusement. In 1929 Mr. Ernest Carr, a keen supporter of the Coryn- don Museum, saw the flower paintings and felt that they deserved a wider public; he gave a grant to the Museum for the purpose of paying a salary to Miss Napier as Botanist for the period of four years. Having had no previous training in botany. Miss Napier accepted the appoint- ment with some hesitation. She went home, and after some months in Kew, where she received a botanical grounding, she returned to start her post at the Museum in 1931. Although Miss Napier was always very modest about her accomplish- ments, one cannot but feel the greatest admiration for the magnificent work she did in four short years. Not only did she build up a very useful Herbarium of East African plants, numbering over four thousand mounted sheets, but she also published a series of papers, illustrated with her own line-drawings, on the East African Flora for the Journal of the “East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society”. She adorned the Botanical Exhibit Room at the Museum with a great many of her excellent water- colour drawings of indigenous plants, and made four of the six beautiful colour plates for the first edition of “Gardening in East Africa”, 1934. The Hon. Mrs. Evelyn Molony. April, 1.953. Obituary 45 Miss Napier’s name appears as one of the collaborators in White and Sloane’s standard work on the Stapeliads published in 1937, for which she supplied all the local information available on the subject, as well as a number of illustrations. The authors named Stapelia molonyae after her. At the Kew Herbarium, with which she continued to collaborate and where she sent her collections to be studied and named, Miss Napier’s work was much ajl^ireciated; her plant material was always well preserv- ed, fully annotated and often amplified with sectional drawings. Miss Napier went to England on leave at the end of her contract with the Museum. She returned to Kenya in 1935 to marry Mr. D. W. Molony, who was farming there, and whom she had known since 1926. Marriage, with children to bring up and life on a farm, left little leisure for botanical studies; but Mrs. Molony continued to show great interest in the Museum, and when ever she found an opportunity she brought plants for the Herbarium. When, four years after she had left the Museum, the writer took over the duties of Botanist, Mrs. Molony was most helpful with her advice, and greatly facilitated his task. She kept in close touch with the Her- barium until the outbreak of the war, when her husband joined the Army and the heavy burden of running the farm and educating her children fell upon her. Indeed, in addition to her own, Mrs. Molony supervised the work on other farms whose owners had joined up; and it was only natural that her visits and contributons to the Herbarium ceased alto- gether. However, her interest in the Museum remained to the last. As Miss Evelyn Napier her name will always be remembered in connection with its early development, not only for her work, but also her loyal and charming personality. P.R.O. Bally. Sept. 1952. 46 VoL. XXIt BOOK REVIEWS “BIRDS OF EASTERN & NORTH-EASTERN AFRICA” : Vol. I pp xxv, 798 (with Index 836): by C. W. Mackworth-Praed and C. H. B. Grant. Longmans, Green & Co., 1952. Sh. 45/ — . Bird lovers in Kenya and elsewhere have been waiting a long time for this book; and it is to be hoped that the second and final volume will not be long behind the first in appearing. The work as a whole which, it seems, is, meant by the publishers to form part of an aggregate of bird books to be entitled “The African Handbook of Birds”, covers the area comprised by the Sudan and Eritrea in the north, right down to parts, not very clearly defined, of Nyasaland and Portugese territory in the south. The present volume deals with all the non-passerine birds, and two families (Pittas and Broadbills) of the passerines. Nobody who is interested in birds and can afford a rather expensive book will fail to secure a copy of Praed and Grant’s work, for which reason a lengthy description of it here would serve no purpose: a general idea must suffice, with some suggestions for improvement in the later editions which must surely come. Perhaps they will take the form of re-writing. The systematic plan, and the nomenclature must always be the chief worry of the writers of a new book on birds. It is a step forward, and not backward as might appear, that in this book the species, and not the geographical race, is made the unit and given a serial number. There are 653 numbers in this first volume; so it looks as if when the passerines are added in the second volume the total will run well up to 1500. The suggestion is made that this might be considerably cut down by a rele- gation to sub-specific rank of some of the forms which the authors class as full species; and at the same time by the omission of the sub-headings (relating to characters, distribution, habits, food, etc.) when races are being treated. Once per species would be sufficient, and then all that would be necessary would be an idication of racial character-difference, and the range, in the case of forms other than the nominate, or the most important. To take one example from the present volume, nobody with an acquaintance of the species in the field could doubt that the differ- ence between Caprimulgus feridus and C. pectoralis is racial only; yet, following many writers in the past the authors separate them specific- ally; and habit differences between conspecific races can but seldom be said to exist. The marginal distribution maps are a great help; and in some families, such as the Storks, the marginal black and white drawings are adequate for identification (except in the case of the Black Stork and Abdim’s where the smaller bird is depicted as being the larger of the two). The 53 colour- ed plates do not comprise all species; but they show the majority, and are well executed and free from the unfortunate over-crowding seen in Robert’s book. There are a good many changes in nomenclature from that of Jackson’s book. This is to be deplored; but it will go on from year to year until there is some Anglo-American body brought into existence whose fiat would settle a name for say, at least ten years, when the same body could April, 1953. Book Reviews 47 issue revisions, equally authoritative. Meanwhile we must just go on acqu- ainting ourselves with the new names put forward, remembering that they in turn may be superseded, and perhaps the old ones restored, as so often in the past. For Kenya the new work will not replace Jackson, not only because the areas covered are not the same, but because the inevitable compression in- volved in getting so much detail into a manageable compass leaves no room for anything resembling the lasting charm of Bawana F.J.J.’s field descriptions — never too long for the nature lover. But you must have Praed and Grant as well as Jackson, and then all desiderata that the pre- sent state of knowledge can supply will be met. The oologist, as always, will remain unsatisfied. He wants more detail than any book nowadays can reasonably give without getting lop-sided. But at least really famous doubtful records — everyone of the older brigade knows which they are — might have been either omitted or supplemented with references which would have enabled proper evalua- tion by the younger generation. In a future edition it is thought that more stress might well be laid on points of difference between species that are puzzlingly alike on first acquaintance. What is very superficial to the ornithologist may be baffl- ing to the beginner. Lastly, the authors’ statement in the Preface that the book is not meant for the library shelf, but for use and reference in the field, can surely be no more than the expression of a pious hope, unlikely of fulfil- ment. The first volume weighs pounds; and anyone who has taken Jackson (about 4 pounds to the volume) with him once into the field has probably never done so again. All right for the car perhaps; but in Kenya at all events, where the roads are the worst in Africa, damage will be done even on a car trip. If you think of subjecting this costly book to the dust, heat and sweat that are the normal adjuncts of African, bird-watch- ing, get a nice leather satchel made for it with sheepskin lining, or, better still, buy two copies and keep one rigorously at home. But try your hand first at identifying a small Hawk in flight by means of the key which begins at page 116. The present reviewer can only afford one copy and will keep it handy — but on a shelf. The pocket volume of African birds has yet to be written. C. F. B. “UNDER THE SEA WIND”, by Rachel L. Carson Staples Press Ltd., London. This book is by the author of “ The Sea Around Us,” a best seller in America to which much publicity was given. Many such books have lately been produced in America, of which the best so far is “The Bay”. The present book describes the migration adventures of two sander- lings, the mackerel and that old stand-by, the eel. Interposed with these are mullet, sea trout, shrimps and many other things, all described in high-power language. If you know nothing about these things, it is worth reading. The illustrations in the English edition are by C. F. Tunnicliffe. H. C. 48 Book Reviews VOL. XXII “THE SHOALS OF CAPRICORN”, by F. D. Ommanney. Longman, Green & Co., London. Dr. Ommanney was a scientific Fishery Officer on the Seychelles- Mauritius Fishery survey which was conducted in a 45 ton drifter, the “Cumulus”. Anyone expecting to find out all about this survey and its results will be disappointed; but as an account of the author’s impressions of Mauritius, Seychelles, Aldabra, and many of the small islands, the book is first class, and written in English up to Ommanney’s best stan- dard. To the average person, even in Kenya, these islands are vague names and a holiday' trip to the Seychelles would represent the total knowledge of the majority. The book is written with wit and humour, and has good photographs. I advise everyone to buy it. H. C. “THE GAME FISHES OF AFRICA”, by Hugh Copley, O.B.E., H. F. & G. Witherby Ltd., London. In the author’s note he states that his object in writing the book is “to help and guide men situated in any part of Africa in their efforts to catch fish”; and one cannot read many pages before realising that he has achieved his purpose. It is a book for reference, to keep ready to hand, and not just to pick up one evening after dinner. After an introduction in which fish, their organs, senses and functions are shortly discussed in non-technical language, the book goes on to its first Section, the Sea Fishes. Each fish which the angler will catch, or see in the fish markets, is described by its common name, its scientific name, and its native local name. Distribution, localities and description are given; and finally, under Remarks, are discussed sporting value, baits, edible qualities, weight attained, and other information of interest to the angler. After sea fishes comes a section on Freshwater fishes, followed by a section on baits. The indexing is very thorough, having two parts, one of the common and native names, and the other the scientific names. The book is illustrated by 24 plates of photographs, and 176 line draw- ings. The paper and printing is of a high standard and the book a comfor- table size to handle. It treats of the whole of Africa, and is unique in that respect. The author says “the book is purely a beginning, much has been missed, mistakes may occur, and sporting fish may have been omitted”, but it is a grand beginning, and will be a standard for many years to come. D. F. S. “A COLOURED ATLAS OF SOME VERTEBRATES FROM CEYLON”. Vol. I. Fishes. by P.E.P. Deraniyahala. Ceylon Nat. Museums. This is volume I of a series of publications on the Vertebrates of April, 1953. Letter to the Editor 49 Ceylon, written by the Director, Dr. Deraniyagala, and with his own illustrations, consisting of 34 coloured plates and 60 text figures. Naturally the book does not deal v/ith anything like all the fishes of Ceylon; but it does deal with all the fresh water ones and a few of the marine families. It can be warmly recommended to any person interested in fishes and especially in those of Ceylon; and it forms a welcome addi- tion to the Society’s Library. H.C. Letter to the Editor : RESEARCH ON AFRICAN BATS. Sir, I am engaged in working on the status of various African bats and should be grateful if I could appeal to readers of your Journal to help me in acquiring specimens. Specimens of any species from any part of Africa would be most welcome and helpful to me in my research. Bats are best preserved by being put as fresh as possible into a solu- tion of 10% formialin or industrial spirits. Before immersion it is impor- tant that a small slit be made in the belly to allow rapid fixation of the viscera by the preserving fluid. A pencil written label giving date and locality should be attached. When the specimens have been in preserving fluid for two or three weeks, take them out and pack in damp paper or cotton-wool in a tin, to prevent drying-out, and send airmail parcel post (6/- per half pound), labelled Natural History Specimens of No Commer- cial Value to Dr. David L. Harrison, Bowerwood House, St. Botolph’s Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, England. I shall be pleased to refund postage expenses. Yours etc., 25 Feb. ’53. Sgd. David L. Harrison. Editor’s Note. — It is hoped that as many readers as possible will assist Dr. Harrison in his bat researches. Among his forthcoming publications is an important one dealing with the bats of Kenya Colony, giving charac- ters by which our local species may be identified, which will be published in this Journal. If it would assist any member of the Society who secures bat specimens, the Editor is prepared to pack and forward these to Dr. Harrison. 50 VOL. XXII NOTICE TO READERS. The Editor has received the following notice from Colonel B. E. Horton : — “ House to let, Shimoni, Kenya coast; fully furnished stone lodge, 3 bedrooms, bathroom, inside sanitation, ample water, house-servant. Secluded, peaceful and trouble-free. Good anchorage. Cheap fish, eggs and poultry available. Charter 18 ft. auxiliary sea-going day boat arranged. Apply B. E. Horton, Shimoni, via P.O. Mombasa.” The Editor has pleasure in bringing this notice to the attention of members on his own personal recommendation. Shimoni is one of the most interesting localities on the coast for a naturalist, especially those keen on birds (many sea birds breed on an islet just off Shimoni), marine fauna and butterflies. Printed in Kenya By W. Boyd & Co. (printers) Ltd, Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society OCTOBER, 1953. VOL. XXII. No. 2 (94) EAST AFRICA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. Patrons. His Excellency The Hon. Sir Evelyn Baring, k.c.m.g., k.c.v.o. Sir Philip Mitchell, k.c.m.g. Sir Henry Moore, k.c.m.g. President. Hugh Copley Esq., o.b.e. Vice-President. R. W. Rayner Esq., b.a., a.i.c.t.a. Executive Committee. P. R. O. Bally Esq., Colonel M. K. Cowie, m.l.c. W. Hale Esq., b.a. J. S. Karmali Esq., b.pharm., ph.c., d.b.a. Miss E. J. Blencowe, s.r.n., s.c.m. J. McDonald Esq., c.b.e., d.f.c. Miss M. D. Ball. P. J. Greenway Esq., o.b.e., f.l.s. Secretary. Miss D. Ewing. - Hon. Editor. J. G. Williams Esq., m.b.o.u. Hon. Treasurer. W. R. Bowles Esq. Hon. Librarian. R. A. F. Brenan Esq., m.a. All correspondence in connection with this Journal should be addressed to : The Hon. Secretary, P.O. Box 658, Nairobi. Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society OCTOBER, 1953. VOL. XXII. No. 2 (94) CONTENTS Page The Study of Snails and Slugs in East Africa By B. Verdcourt (Illustrated) 52 The Tilapia Fisheries of the Kavirondo Gulf By H. Copley (Illustrated) 57 On The Northern Uaso Nyiro By M. Dalton (Illustrated) 62 Mudworts in Kenya By B. Verdcourt (Illustrated) 65 A Small Outbreak of Euproctis rubrlcosta Fawcett (Lepidoptera, Lymantriidae) in the Eastern Province of Tanganyika By J. Phipps 67 Some Speculations on the Sudden Occurrence History of Lake Magadi By T. H. White of Floods in the (Illustrated) 69 Amboseli National Reserve By M. Dalton (Illustrated) 72 Short Notes ... 73 Notices ... 75 Essay 76 52 VOL. XXII THE STUDY OF SNAILS AND SLUGS IN EAST AFRICA By Bernard Verdcourt, b.sc., f.l.s. Most members of the Society probably see a few snails during their rambles, but have not been able to identify them. Many may not have realised that they are worth collecting. Much material is .still needed from East Africa particularly by local Museums. Every member can help by collecting. Material complete with the animal preserved in spirit is parti- cularly needed. Almost any species of snail drowned, and then preserved is of great value for anatomical investigations. Any member thinking of specialising on a particular group could do a considerable amount of new work. The writer is willing to receive material at the East African Herba- rium, P.O. Box 5166, Nairobi and attempt identifications. Any material received will be put in the study collection of the Coryndon Museum. Snails and slugs belong to the Mollusca which is the second largest group in the animal kingdom, following the insects in abundance of individuals and species. It comes a very poor second, however, there being perhaps about 70,000 described molluscs as against a million or more insects. The phylum Mollusca contains a wide variety of animals which would perhaps not be associated with each other by a layman. Octopi, mussels, chitons, slugs, sea and land shells all belong to the same phylum. It is not a very easy group to define; most of the members of it have a shell which is laid down by tissues known as the mantle; those having a head develop a highly characteristic rasping organ termed a radula (about which more will be said in another article); most species have a muscular foot used for locomotion; and all have a rather com.plicated nervous and reproductive system. In this paper we are concerned with only two out of the five main groups contained in the phylum — the Univalves (Gastro- poda) and the bivalves (Lamellibranchiata). Snails and slugs are of course closely related to marine shells but students and collectors usually con- centrate on one group or the other. Non-marine m.ollusca have always been favourites with amateur natural- ists and although the group impinges but little on the layman, there is a vei’y large amount of literature devoted to the subject. There are two national journals in England alone and 15 others published throughout the world which are well-known. There are innumerable obscure ones. Despite thisi general activity the East African fauna is not well-known. If one finds a snail in Europe, North America or South Africa there are lavishly illustrated monographs vrhich render naming it easy. If, however, one tries to name a snail in Kenya one is faced with a very difficult task. There is no faunistic work which has in it a compilation of the scores of scientific papers which have been written on East African land and fresh- water mollusca. This literature is very scattered in German, Italian, French and English language journals. Unless one has a very good knowledge of the genera of tropical African mollusca. and an extensive iibiary the naming of individual specimens is difficult in the extreme. October, 1953. The Study of Snails and Slugs in E. Africa. 53 There is no professional specialist in the group in East Africa, neither is there a good collection from which one could at least name by comparison. The existing collection at the Coryndon Museum is a good nucleus and when organized and expanded will be invaluable to anyone wishing to study East African Mollusca. Mention should be made of the annually published Zoological Record, a publication the more recent volumes of which are available at the library of the Coryndon Museum. Abstracts of nearly all papers published on Mollusca are included in the appropriate section of this publication and readers can .see what work has been done. There are other difficulties. The study of East African mollusca is strangled by the indifferent work of some of the previous students. These people described large numbers of species from poor “dead” (i.e. devoid of animal) shells without reference to anyone else’s work at all. The whole stage is therefore cluttered with synonymy. One sends the same species to three people at different museums and as often as not one gets three dif- ferent names back. This state of affairs always happens until a group is revised and synonymies sorted out. In many groups such revisions were carried out long ago (birds, mammals, butterflies etc). Without a know- ledge of the anatomy of a snail it is often quite impossible to put it in its correct genus. The dissection of a minute snail is a very skilled job. These early workers paid no attention to this side and the correct genus of several hundred species will be unknown until material is reobtained from the type localities and dissected. It will be as well to give a very rough idea of the work which has been done and what books are available. All the early explorers and many missionaries (French in particular) picked up a few shells e.g. Speke and Grant, Burton, Schweinfurth, Last, Grandidier, Emin Pasha, et al. and these were described chiefly by J. Bourguignat, a Parisian naturalist well-known for his incredible splitting and enormous output, who has left chaos everywhere, Crosse and Ancey, both French, Edgar Smith of the British Museum, the greatest expert of his day, and many others. Their papers are to be found in Journal of Conchology, Proc. Malacological Soc., J. de Conchyliologie, and private publications. The exceedingly odd fauna of Lake Tanganyika which has led to raging arguments concerning the history of the lake has a voluminous literature of its own which increases yearly. The earlier literature is admirably summarised by Cunnington (1920). The first compilatory work is that by the great expert Edouard von Martens (1898) but it deals mostly with Tanganyika. Although it is exceedingly rare and the nomenclature out- dated it is very useful since nothing else has appeared. The monumental works on the mollusca of the Belgian Congo by Pilsbry and Bequaert (1919 & 1927) are of great value particularly where the Mollusca of Uganda are concerned. Connolly’s works on the mollusca of Portuguese East Africa (1925) and South Africa (1939) are also helpful. During this present century numerous papers have been published by Preston, D’Ailly, Daut- zenberg, Connolly, etc. and these may be found in Proc. Zoo. Soc., Rev. Zool. Afr., Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., and elsewhere. Preston’s work was based 54 The Study of Snails and Slugs in E. Africa. VOL. XXII entirely on shells and he described things in the wrong genera and even families. He was a dealer and his work is indescribable. A very useful summary of his new species is given by Schouteden (1936) and indication is made as to which of his types are at the Congo Museum (a very large percentage are). Lists of Smith’s and Connolly’s papers may be found in the mollusca library of the British Museum. Following is a list of the families represented in East Africa together with the main genera which they contain. Typical representatives of the families are shown on Plate 1. In a future paper a key to the families will be given and mention made of the most important species. GASTROPODA (Shells in one piece — usually twisted) Order PULMONATA (air-breathers) Fam. Streptaxidae : a predominating group in E.A., often minute, carni- vorous. Chief genera: — Gulella, Ptychotrema, Edentulina, Gonaxis, Marconia, Tayloria, Steptostele and Varicostele. (Fig. 1.) Fam. Helicarionidae : thin-shelled species with animal barely able to retract into its shell. Helicarion, Sheldonia, Thapsia, Zingis etc. (Fig. 2). EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES. 1. Gulella fortidentata (Sm.) Kondoa-Irangi, T.T., Streptaxidae. 2. Helicarion sp., Helicarionidae. 3. Ledoulxia sp. Ledoulxiidae. 4. an Urocyclid slug, Urocyclidae. 5. Achatina fulica Bowdich, Kenya coast, Achatinidae. 6. a European species of Delima to show the shape of the Clausiliidae. 7. Cerastus nobilior Preston, Muguga, Kenya, Enidae. 8. Caecilioides sp., Ferusaciidae. 9. underside of a Veronicellid slug. 10. Lymnaea caillaudi (Bgt.), Moshi, T.T. Lymnaeidae. 11. Burnupia sp., Ancylidae. 12. Pila adusta (Rve.), Zanzibar, Pilidae. 13. Biomphalaria sudanica (Mts.), Rungwe, T.T., Planorbidae. 14. Caelatura sp., Unionidae. 15. Melanoides tuberculata (Mull.), L. Kivu, Thiaridae. 16. Viviparus sp., Viviparidae. 17. Bithynia humerosa Mts., L. Kivu, Hydrobiidae. 18. Tropidophora sp., Pomatiidae. N.B. — Many of the figures are generalised and are merely to give an idea of the shapes encountered in the various families. Plate 1. I. October, 1953. The Study of Snails and Slugs in E. Afi'ica. 55 Fam. Ledoulxiidae ; conical thin-walled shells usually very sharply angled on periphery. Ledoulxia, Trochozonites, Sitala, Kaliella etc. (Fig. 3.) Fam. Urocyclidae ; slugs, external shell absent. Trichotoxon, Atoxon, etc. (Fig. 4.) Fam. Vitrinidae; like small Helicarions superficially. Vitrina. Fam. Endodontidae : usually minute and flattened snails. Trachycystis, Punctum. Fam. Helicidae : true snails such as English ‘Garden Snail’ usually at high altitudes in E.A. Halolimnohelix, and numerous dubious genera proposed by Preston in the Zonitidae ! Fam. Achatinidae : a predominating group, often very large, turreted. Achatina, Burtoa, Limicolaria, Opeas, Pseudopeas, Curvella, Suhulina, Pseudoglessula, Krapflella, Bocageia, Nothapalus, Zootecus, etc. (Fig. 5.) Fam. Clausiliidae : elongate snails abundant in Europe, China, etc. but very rare in Africa; only two species have been described, both in the genus Clausilia but certainly not belonging to it. I have found a single specimen of an Austrohalea at Moroto, Uganda (Oct. 1952). (Fig. 6). Fam. Pupillidae : minute cylindrical shells of temperate places. Trunca- tellina, Pupilla, Pupoides, Jaminia, Fauxulus (latter two Preston records). Fam. V ertiginidae : Preston described an “Alaea” (= Vertigo) but I know nothing of it. Fam. Enidae : conical shells. Cerastus, Conulinus, Rachidina, Rachxstia etc. (Fig. 7). Fam. Pyramidulidae : predominantly temperate, mostly minute species. Preston has described an Acanthinula from Mt. Kenya. Fam. Ferussaciidae : minute white elongate snails. Caecilioides. (Fig. 8). Fam. Succineidae : usually semiaquatic, but in E.A. often found on rocks and bark. Succinea. Fam. Veronicellidae ; peculiar flattened slugs; Ve7’onicella etc. (Fig. 9). Fam. Lymnaeidae : abundant conical aquatic snails with mouth on right hand side. Lymnaea. (Fig. 10). Fam. Planorbidae : flattened disc-like snails, or like Lymnaea v/ith mouth on opposite (left) side, abundant in stagnant water. ‘Pla^iorhis’ , Biompha- laria, Gyraulus, Segmentina, Bulinus, Physopsis. etc. (Fig. 13). Fam. Ancylidae : freshwater limpets, minute shells resembling the familiar marine limpets in shape but not at all related. Several “Ayicylus" have been described from E.A. but do not belong to that genus. (Fig. 11). Order PECTINIBRANCHIA (mouth of shell with a close-fitting lid). 56 The Study of Snails and Slugs in E. Africa. Vol. xxii Fam. Cyclophoridae : land snails with very rounded whorls. Maizania. Fam. Pomatiidae : similar to last but with strong spiral grooves. Tropido- phora. (Fig. 18). Fam. Pilidae : large globular aquatics often in swamps, Pila, Lanistes. (Fig. 12). Fam. Viviparidae: similar to last but more conical. Viviparus, Neothauma. (Fig. 16). Fam. Thiaridae : mostly elongated water snails : Cleopatra, Melanoides, and 16 genera entirely endemic to Lake Tanganyika which are peculiarly marine in their appearance. (Fig 15). Fam. Syrnolopsidae : small shells peculiar to Lake Tanganyika. Syrno- lopsis, Anceya. Fam. Hydrobiidae ; Minute aquatics. Bithynia ( — Bulimus). (Fig. 17). Fam. Assimineidae ; small aquatic snails usually estuarine. Preston has described an inland genus which is dubious. Eussoia, Assimineia. Order ASPIDOBRANCHIA. Fam. Hydrocenidae : small littoral shells, mostly South African, one from Kenya. Hydrocena. Fam. Neritidae : familiar nerites of the sea. Neritina occurs in estuaries. Little has been said about the Bivalves but the following families and genera ■ occur in East Africa: Unionidae (Unio, Caelatura, Parreysia, Grandidiera, etc.). Mutelidae (Aspatharia Mutela, Iridina, Pseudospatha, etc.). Cyrenidae (Corbicula), Etheriidae (Etheria). Sphaeriidae (Pseudo- corbicula, Sphaerium, Pisidium.) (Fig. 14). REFERENCES. Connolly, M. ‘The Non-Marine Mollusca of Portuguese East Africa’ Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. 12, 105 ff. 1925 Connolly M. 'A Monographic Survey of the South African Non- Marine Mollusca’ Annals S. Afr. Mus., 33, 1 ff. 1939 Cunnington, W. A. ‘The Fauna of the African Lakes. . Proc. Zoo. Soc., 507 ff. 1920 Martens, E. v. Beschalte Weichthiere Ost-Africas, Band IV of Deutsch-Ost-Africa. Berlin. 1898 Pilsbry, H. A. ‘A Review of the Land Mollusks of the Belgian Congo. . .’ Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 40, 1 ff 1919 Pilsbry, PI. A., and ‘The Aquatic Mollusks of the Belgian Congo. . .’ Bequaert, J. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 53, 69 ff. 1927 October, 1953. 57 THE TIL API A FISHERIES OF THE KAVIROMDO GULF, By Hugh Copley. The Kavirondo Gulf is an arm of Lake Victoria and is the main producer of lake fish ngege or Tilapia, to Nairobi, which provides us with an excellent fish food. The Kavirondo Gulf is completely within Kenya Colony and the administration of its fisheries together with the other parts of the lake come under the Lake Victoria Fishery Board whose head- quarters are based at Kisumu. Before paying particular attention to the gulf let us consider Lake Victoria as a whole. The area of the lake is generally given as 26,000 square miles, nearly the size of Scotland. From north to south it is 250 miles with a greatest breadth of 200 miles and the shore-line is about 3,000 statute miles. The shape of the lake can be compared with that of a soup plate. There is an edge or shelf sloping from the shore gently to the 100 foot mark and then dropping to form the rounded bowl of the soup plate with a maximum depth of 270 feet. The shelf from the shore to the 100 foot line forms the fishing grounds and here all fishing is done. The Kavirondo Gulf is a depression covered by lake water about 42 miles long by an average width of 12 miles which narrows to 4 miles at the gate- way at Rusinga Island. It is very shallow with a maximum depth of 20 feet. The water of this gulf is not stationary by any means for there is a diurnal range as much as 18" caused by wind pushing water in the main lake through the entrance and into the Gulf. When the wind changes and pushes water in another direction this extra 18" of gulf water fiows back into the lake. This rise and tall in the water level of the gulf goes on all the year round depending on the direction and force of the wind. There are two species of Tilapia in the gulf; the ngege {Tilapia esculenta) and the mbiru {Tilapia variahilis). It is the ngege which provides the fish Kavirondo Tilapia Fisheries. VOL. XXII export from the lakes as it travels and keeps well. The mbiru is not a good traveller or keeper and is consumed locally. Again the gulf is predomi- nantly a ngege fishery whilst other parts of the lake are just the opposite. The general idea that the ngege is found all over the lake is completely without any foundation — in fact the ngege shoals are local. The ngege is caught by means of a 5" gill net and this regulation is strictly enforced. Other sized nets are used all over the lake for other fish but this does not interest us. The theory is that by the use of a gill net with a mesh of 5" no Tilapia will be caught which has not spawned. The nets are 100 yards long when bought, but when mounted are 60 yards long by about 5 feet deep. From 3 to 12 of these nets are joined together and fished as a “fleet”. They are set in the evening at dusk and lifted at dawn. Just to show the size of the fishery, there are 500,000 5" nets; 250,000 2" nets and 100,000 seine nets in use on Lake Victoria for one year — a value of two million pounds. To work this fishery there are an estimated 30,000 fishermen, as many as in the whole of the British Isles. In the Kavirondo Gulf 8,000 5" gill nets are set every night worth £17,000 and their total length is 272 miles. Each flax net lasts 8 weeks if undamaged or wrecked by hippo or crocodiles. Again 2,200 tons of ngege only are exported from Kisumu a year. Now what of the Tilapia? The first question for everybody concerned, including the housewife, is “Can this go on for ever?” and secondly “Are we catching too many tilapia and exhausting the stock so that in years to come there will be no fish or very few fish to catch?” This depends on another question “Is the stock of fish in the gulf a closed stock say of 13g million fish or is the number of fishes caught made up by migrations of fish from the main stock in the lake?” It wil be seen that this is a most important question, for if we have 13^ millions (these figures are purely a guess) of Tilapia in the gulf and catch 4;j million of mature fish every year can the 9 millions left keep the fishing going? On the other hand if 4g million fish come in from the main lake every year and keep the stock of 132 million up to strength and we do not catch more than 4J million every year the fishery goes on for ever. Into this simplified picture comes a disturbing element. The population of Kenya, all races, is increasing at no mean rate and has a greatly increasing spending power; all can afford to eat more fish, and therefore there are more mouths clamouring to be filled. Whereas 42 million fish per year may satisfy these mouths this year, as the years pa.ss they will want 6 million fish then 8 million fish and so on. Consequ- ently the pressure for more fish from the gulf will increase, so back we come to our two questions. If the fish population is a closed one, spending its life cycle in the Kavirondo Gulf, a continued increase in the fishing effort will in the long run catch every fish and the fishery is doomed. If however the catch per year is made up from the stock of fish in the main lake the fishery will continue for many more year, but again if the number of fish caught goes on increasing there will come a point when the October, 1953. Kavirondo Tilapia Fisheries. 59 fishery is doomed, for there will not be enough increase in the main lake tilapia each year to make up for the number of fish caught by the fisher- men in the Kavirondo Gulf and other fishing grounds. I have endeavoured to show these two different schools of ideas in a simple diagram. The full line A shows shoals entering the gulf, spawning and then returning to the main lake. The dotted line B shows the presum- ed migration of closed shoals which spend all their life in the Kavirondo Gulf. Now the first thing to do is to follow a fish or a few fishes and find out what it or they do in a year, two years or better still in three years. “Simple my dear Watson” until you look at the Kavirondo Gulf, then go to Rusinga Island and have a look at the lake, and there seems a lot of water. Again think that we are trying to visualise what 13J million fish are doing in that vast amount of liquid. This can only be done by marking fish and then catching them again to find out their migrations. A good start has been made by Commander Cole and his men of the Lake Victoria Fishery Service who are catching and marking a number of tilapia, which they let go with a fervent prayer that they will be caught again by some native fisherman who will bring them back to them with a correct story of where he caught them and the exact date. It is heartening to know that marks are coming in. In time we shall know if the tilapia spends its life in the closed gulf or migrates and circulates in the main lake. The marking experiments have started in the gulf but in time will be moved to the entrance. Somebody will say that’s all right with marking and getting back the few but they are a tiny proportion of the whole population. They are, but as the tilapia is a shoal fish with very few stragglers we can consider the few caught as representative of the movements of the whole. So far our reckoning has been on a very simple basis but many complications set in which make a fishery officer go bald long before his time. If we go to other great fisheries we find that certain fish, cod and herring for instance, show natural fluctuations in abundance and these fluctuations are in cycles of 10 and often 25 years. It has been proved with cod and herring and is believed to be true for other fish like menhadden, sardines, tunny etc. Among the natural causes producing these fluctuations are the influence of favourable or unfavourable hydrological or physical conditions such as temperature, light intensity, currents, storms by surface agitation of the water, variation in food supply, variation in natural enemies, variation in the number of eggs spawned, variation in migrations of young and old fish, variation in population pressui’e and others. The most important environmental factor for the survival of the larval fish and hence the future of the brood of the year is the presence of the proper food in proper quantities at the stage of development when the newly hatched larval fish has used up its yolk sac and must feed on phyto- plankton or microscopic food. If that food is not there iust when all the 60 Kavirondo Tilapia Fisheries. VOL. XXII millions of tiny tilapia want it, mass death will occur affecting the fishing adversely two or three years hence. It is gradually being x’ealised that this may be the predominant factor in the whole history of the tilapia and we know nothing about it. The only way we can find out how the fishery is working is to study the catch of fish made from the gulf every year, for the catch should follow the up and downs of the fish shoal. This is the only way we can do it as we cannot know the number in the shoal every year or the number born — I wish we could. The curve of total catches (Fig. 2) shows two peaks of abundance, one in 1935 and another in 1943, but it also shows that the peak in 1943 was much lower than that in 1935. The curve also shows a cycle of 8 years, up to 1947. After 1947 the fishery gradually stabilises itself to a total catch of 5 million fish and a catch rate of 1.9 fish per net per night. In other words the fishery is in equilibrium; but any increase in the number of fish caught should affect the catch rate per night, and the fishery would progressively decline until it did not pay the fishermen to catch a fish. The gradual decline in the curve (Fig. 2A) from 1937 to 1940 was due to the low price received for fish with an upward increase in the price of nets. Supposing one converted all the nets set in tlie gulf every night to nets which would catch twice as many fish i.e. 3.8 fish per net per night and still keep the October, 1953. Kavirondo Tilapia Fisheries. 61 fishing in equilibrium then half the number of nets only could be allowed to fish each night. The number of fishermen does not matter. This fishing effort, as it is called, also depends on the cost of each net together with working costs, which shall be below the price the fisherman gets for his fish. If the working costs go up and the price received for the catch remains stationary, then the number of fish caught will decrease as the fisherman will look for another job. The fishery benefits as it gets a rest, but the general economy of the Colony suffers. It seems therefore that the fishery is in eouilibrium, but we want more fish to feed the increasing population as the years go by — what shall we do? The ngege is not the only fish in the Kavirondo Gulf or in the lake. Other fish must be exported, like bagrus, butter fish, lungfish which are good wholesome food, and the sooner this is done the better. I hope I have convinced any reader that firstly the fisheries of Lake Victoria are very large, for a yield of 80,000 tons of fish a year by 30,000 fishermen is no small fishery. Secondly various environmental factors for the spawning stock are of vital importance to the successful continuation of the fishery. Thirdly to hold the present position other species of fish have got to be exploited. Finally how is the fishery controlled and how much does control cost? The lake fisheries are controlled by the Lake Victoria Fisheries Service under the leadership of Commander G. Cole who has 3 ships and 6 Fishery Officers for a lake the size of Scotland. The total amount of money avail- able for the service in 1953 is £20,128 equally divided between Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda. In other words the people of Kenya pay £7,000 a year towards a service which regulates the use of 850,000 nets; producing 80,000 tons of fish, keeping 30,000 fishermen at work and providing 800,000 people with fish. Such is dirt cheap at the price. WHAT FUTURE JOURNALS WILL CONTAIN The Editor wishes to inform readers that every effort is being made to improve the standard of the Journal and to render it of greater use to members. With this end in view two series of articles will commence shortly, “The Identification of Birds of Prey in Flight” and “The Identifica- tion of East African Marine Shells”. Mr. B. Verdcourt introduces the latter series with a fully illustrated account of the Cowries. A number of species of these attractive shells are not represented in the Coryndon Museum’s collection and an appeal for specimens is made to anyone who may be at the coast. Any contributions from your own Cowrie collection would be most acceptable. Thank you. John G. Williams, Hon. Editor. 62 VOL. XXII ON THE NORTHERN UASO NYIRO. By Merrell, Dalton. The success of the smaR Lodge, erected by Kenya National Parks on the banks of the northern Uaso Nyiro in 1950, may be seen by the many delightful entries in the Visitor's Book proving that a camp of this description is appreciated, not only by so many of our own local people, but also by those drawn to it from places as far afield as South Africa, England and the United States. Members of the Walt Disney Film Co., for instance, made successful sequences of elephant, giraffe, buffalo, etc., when camping on the river in August last, (1952), and the studio report, as quoted to us by Mr. and Mrs. A1 Milotte who were taking the pictures, states “they, (the studio) particularly liked the ones of the birds, remark- ing on the brilliance of the colour”. A couple from Natal, both keen ornithologists, remarked on the tame- ness and variety of the birds, and were thrilled to find the nests of no less than seven different species inside the small lodge perimeter. This Lodge, which consists of four double cottages built of cedar logs and thatched with makuti, is situated some thirty four miles from Isiolo in the Marsabit National Reserve. The bandas are built close to the river, and are almost opposite the spot known to the local Samburu as ‘Nyama Yangu’ (or Newman’s camp), for this was the headquarters of one of the greatest elephant hunters of his day. Huge acacia trees and Aphania senegalensis (which rather resembles a mango but is no relation), make dense green-black shade. Along the banks, there are dom palms, and, further upstream, fine specimens of Piptadenia hildebrandtii and Tana poplar. But the belt of vegetation is perilously shallow, great chunks of bank are devoured during the bi-yearly floods, and the debris of dead wood is considerable. Two of the worst factors, however, are the indiscriminate burning of trees by honey hunters, and the ravaging of bark, young trees and shoots by the multitudinous goats owned by the Samburu, and also by the Turkana who reside along the south bank of the river. The opening of a track through the Reserve that extends from the main Marsabit road up to the old Barsalinga crossing, and beyond to the Maralal escarpment, has been very effective in stopping poaching on the north side. This is also patrolled by National Reserve scouts. Those interested in game photography should have little difficulty in obtaining pictures of elephant, rhino, buffalo and other game. Elephant families are frequently seen bathing in the river in the hottest time of day. Lions are less easily come across, largely due to the nature of the bush and their wandering habits, but a pride of thirty was reported near Lolokwi — that great flat-topped hill that is such a well known N.F.D. landmark — in the first quarter of ’51, and odd lion have often passed close to, or even right through, the environs of the camp. This area is best A group of elephants on the northern Uaso Nyiro. October, 1933. On the Northeni Uaso Nyiro. 63 visited during the driest months for then the game is, of necessity, con- centrated on the river which is at lowest level. Hundreds of animals water along this river, and the ground is a network of tracks graduating from the enormous footpads of elephant to rhino, buffalo, zebra, and giraffe, the spoor of countless antelope, the impress of the cat tribe, hyaenas, apes, mongooses, down to the tiny etched tracks of birds. Crocodiles are numer- ous and lie out sunning themselves on the open sand banks : they take toll of many sheep, goats, and buck, and have been known to pull down a full-grown giraffe which was drinking in the river. Yet a pair of Egyptian geese, which frequented the shore opposite one of our temporary camps, were utterly indifferent to the crocodiles and wandered about plucking tufts of grass within a foot or two of the drows- ing monsters. I once saw a crocodile driven out of its mud pool by two of the geese which pursued it to the water’s edge with furious hissing and honking ! Impala abound around the Lodge site and have become increasingly tame, treating a car, quite rightly, as a tiresome intruder ! Grant’s gazelle, gerenuk and oryx are more shy, but the waterbuck are quiet enough as are the giraffe and handsome Grev^^’s zebra. Baboons move about in troops of fifty or more. Do they patrol their own ‘beat’ one wonders? It seems probable that families keep very much to certain localities providing the larder remains good. After a day of gleaning in the bush for insects, scorpions, seed, and wild fruits the troop returns home to the river foi’' a drink, later to climb into comfortable and safe forks and niches in the fig and acacia trees for their night’s lodging. It is fascinating to watch a party out foraging. The troop is usually accompanied by a sentinel, some old man baboon who gives utterance to a resounding ‘hoch’ if danger threatens whilst the rest busy themselves dili- gently turning over stones and digging for grubs and beetles. The baby baboons when tired, or too small to keep up, are carried on their mother’s back or tummies, often sitting erect like miniature jockeys. Baboons move with a peculiar loping stride and must cover a consider- able area of ground as well as combing that ground very thoroughly. It is surprising how these heavy animals can roost in c|uite light foliage, and when the wild figs and other fruits and berries ripen they seem able to reach the further clusters with the agility of any monkey. The quantity of riverine birds seems to vary with the seasons. Wood Ibis and Jabiru Stork are more rarely seen but herons, egrets, bittern and geese are fairly common, especially at low water when the catchments made by old logs, boughs, reed islets and driftwood hold an infinite variety of insect life and the green grass of the banks is alive with frogs, grass-hoppers, mice and beetles. And surely, the Goliath heron, standing with bent knee, long powerful beak poised to strike, shadow I’eflected in the stream, is one of the loveliest sights to be encountered on the river? The tracks of these 64 On the Northern Uaso Nyiro. VOL. XXII great birds, unlike the flurry of plover and scratching of guinea fowl, are grave and ponderous as befits a conscientious fisherman. Other birds to be recognised in this area are kingfishers, parakeets, orioles, green and gold bee-eaters, gorgeous rollers, sunbirds, plovers and wagtails, flycatchers, drongos, hoopoes, woodpeckers, gay yellow weavers and their sombre and quarrelsome cousins the sparrow weavers, red-wing- ed starlings and louries to name a few of them. The guinea fowls in the vicinity of the Lodge are tame as poultry, and there are enormous flocks of the brilliant vulturine species, more showy from the photographer’s point of view than is the gentleman in the helmet. There are plenty of game birds too, francolin, sandgrouse, and lesser bustard. Greater bustard are more usually found in the open country between Barsalinga and Wamba and the Maralal escarpment. Birds of prey include the magni- ficent Bateleur eagle, the fish eagle, the crested hawk eagle, eagle owls, hawks, harries, vultures and kites. A small stone bird bath in front of the bandas has done much towards creating an atmosphere of friendliness, and the weavers, pigeons, hornbills and doves, and delightful little Grant’s francolin like miniature bantams now hop about on the open ground joined by gregarious starlings. Please spare your crumbs for them ! Most local residents are aware that the N.F.P. is a ‘closed’ area, and this necessitates taking out an outlying district pass from the District Commissioner, Isiolo, or from the D.C. Maralal, (Samburu) should you come in via Rumuruti. The camp is so popular that it is wisest to book well ahead, and this is done through National Parks head office, post box number 2076, Nairobi. The charge is moderate enough, being only five shillings per head per night, and all that is required of you to bring is your bedding, (beds, nets, and “Dunlopillo” mattresses are provided), personal effects, crockery, food, and tableware, cooking pots and a servant for your own convenience. Your banda contains a large table on the veranda, several chairs, a long bath, a basin, and hot and cold water is laid on to every cottage. There is a guide resident at the camp whose services can be hired for five shillings a day, and there are two loop roads to explore, one leading to the top of fiat crowned Archer’s Post hill, (site of the original Post through which all mail, stores, etc., were transported by camel, donkeys, and bullock wagons to the forward stations of the frontier), and the other circles round Koitogor, a rugged massif, where, if you go early enough, you should find rhino, and perhaps buffalo and elephant, as they wend their way back into the scrub after their nocturnal watering at the river. As petrol can now be obtained at the Lodge it is easy to make various sorties. The road to the camp leads on for some seventy miles upstream and eventually hits off the Wamba Maralal road at the foot of the escarp- ment. Or you can turn off part way, and, with the help of the guide, cross a wide plain which is a short cut over to Wamba and a very favour- ed spot for rhino which can be seen wandering about right out in open ground or browsing along the edge of the thicket. On our first visit to this plain we counted nine rhino ! October, 1953. 65 MUD WORTS IN KENYA By Bernard Verdcourt, b.sc., e.l.s. The genus Limosella L. (Scrophulariaceae) or ‘Mudwort’ as it is called in Britain is very little known in East Africa although several species occur. This short note is intended to draw attention to these interesting plants since in all probability undiscovered .species remain to be found and even the commoner ones are very poorly represented in herbaria. All are small aquatic or semi-aquatic herbs with leaves and flowers radical in basal tufts a few inches in diameter. Three species are mentioned in Flora of Tropical Africa IV (ii) p. 352-3 (1906), but none is recorded from Kenya. KEY TO THE SPECIES A Leaves ovate or elliptic, blades floating abruptly narrowed into flne petioles; rest of plant submerged; flowers sessile; Leaves narrowly elliptic 3. L. africana Gluck Leaves oval 2. L. capensis Thunb. AA Leaves oblanceolate or elliptic, blade merged gradually into a long" coarse petiole; plant growing on muddy banks; flowers stalked 1. L. major Diels AAA Leaves linear or subulate 4. L. macrantha Fries NOTES ON THE SPECIES 1. Limosella major Diels. This has been recorded from Eritrea and South Africa. It was recently discovered by P. J. Greenway and C. F. Hemming at the foot of the escarpment on the Naivasha road in a seasonal Swamp together with sedges, Crassula, etc. in open Acacia woodland. The flowers are pale blue and the plant produces runners. The whole plant is rather fleshy. Greenway & Hemming 8768 (E,A. Herb., and Kew). 2. Limosella capensis Thunb. This species is known from South and South West Africa. It seems to be frequent in very seasonal ponds and swamps e.g. at Muguga on murram. Verdcourt 641 (E.A. Herb and Kew) and Elmen- teita, Soy Sambu Estate Bogdan 1054 (E.A. Herb, and Kew). 3. Limosella africana Gluck. This has been confused under L. aquatica Linn, the common European species and is recorded from Abyssinia and the Cameroons Mountains. Mr. Bogdan has collected this species at Elmenteita, in plains round the lake, pools in saline pan with rock bed. Bogdan 3034 (E.A. Herb, and Kew). 4. Limosella macrantha Fries. This species has not been seen but was describ- ed and figured by its author from plants found in the Aberdares at over 10,000 ft. R.E. & Th. Fries 2691 (Uppsala). The figures may be found in Acta Hort. Bergiani 8, 49 (1925). Further material from other localities in East Africa is must desired. I have not seen Fries’s material fi-om Mt. Kenya which he calls L. aquatica Linn. 66 Mudioorts in Kenya. VoL. xxil Fig. 1. “Mudworls” : — (a) Entire plant of L. major Diels, x i*. (b) flower of ditto, x 4. (c) leaf of L. macrantha R.E., Fr., x h. (d) Leaf of L. capensis, x J. (e) ditto, showing position in water. (f) Leaf of L. africana Gluck, x A RARE HAWK A juvenile plumaged Ovampo Sparrow Hawk {Accipiter ovampensis Gurney) has been added recently to the ornithological study collection at the Coryndon Museum. In this plumage the Ovampo Sparrow Hawk is very similar to an adult Rufous Sparrow Hawk {Accipiter rujiventris Smith) but differs in having buff margins to the feathers of the upperparts and wing coverts and a paler crown. The donors of this valuable specimen are Mr. & Mrs. C. F. Cockburn of Nairobi. The hawk was secured by a native with a stone as it was .standing over a young chicken it had just killed. The Editor. October, 1953. 67 A SMALL OUTBREAK OF EUPROCTIS RUDRICOSTA FAWCETT (LEPIDOPTERA, LYMANTRIIDAE) IN THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF TANGANYIKA By John Phipps, m.sc., d.i.c., m.i. biol. In December, 1952, a heavy infestation of castor oil plants (Ricinus communis) by lepidopterous larvae was noted at Mtibwa Estate by Dr. F. Leutenegger, Soil Chemist, Tanganyika Sisal Growers’ Association. Mtibwa Estate is a new estate near the village of Turiani, which lies about 80 miles north of Kilosa on the road to Handeni. It was planted in 1952 with castor oil (seed imported from Italy) and pawpaw {Carica papaya). In the surrounding area, a good deal of castor oil is grown by African cultivators. No steps were taken to control the infestation, and by mid-January, 1953, it was found that the castor oil was completely defoliated and the larvae had begun to attack the pawpaw. The advice of the author was sought, and a visit made to the estate on 22nd January, 1953. By this time about 70 acres of castor oil had been cut down, and the larvae were distributed over the grass. A large number had crossed the narrow track separating the castor oil from the pawpaw, and some of the latter trees were already fairly heavily attacked. The larvae were found particularly on the leaf bases, where the lower leaves had been cut away, and on the fruits, which had been cut for the collection of the juice. A number of fruits were almost completely consumed and some trees must have contained hundreds of larvae. Penetration into the pawpaw area had not proceeded beyond the tenth row. There was almost no attack on the leaves. Elsewhere on the estate, 30 acres of castor oil remained standing and these bushes, though almost completely defoliated, were heavily infested. Here too, movement of larvae to nearby pawpaw trees had occurred. A minor but very unpleasant feature of the infestation was the irrita- tion produced by the urticating hairs of the larvae. A large number of larvae were to be found on both the inside and outside walls of the temporary European house on the estate, where they were seeking shelter in order to pupate. Numbers of pupae were also found in the cracks and crevices of the house. Control Measures. Some very makeshift tests were carried out in the laboratory before visiting the estate. 5% DDT in kerosene was found to kill only after more than 24 hours exposure. “Gammexane” P 520 (6.5% gamma) in water killed after 12 hours, but as this had been tried in the house in an unsuccessful attempt to get rid of the larvae, it was thought unwise to depend too much on it. “Dieldrin” wettable powder also required more than 12 hours to kill. “Gammexane” dust (“Agrocide” 7) and finely- Euproctis ruhricosta in Tanganyika. VOL. XXII ground pyrdthrum powder appeared to have a more rapid action, but the most rapid and complete kill was obtained with pyrethrum extract dis- solved in kerosene. It was accordingly decided to use this as an emergency measure. Pyrethrum extract containing 25'/ pyrethrins was added to kerosene to give 0.3% pyrethrins and this was sprayed on very lightly using “Four Oaks Knapsack” sprayers. The high concentration was used to avoid damage to the plants by the kerosene. Unfortunately, much of the spraying was done by unskilled labour, and some of the trees received far too heavy a dose, with the result that a small number died. The results otherwise were quite satisfactory, as very few larvae could be found any- where on the pawpaw two days after spraying. Those trees which were sprayed as lightly as was intended, were not damaged. The narrow track between the castor oil and the pawpaw was widened and the earth dusted with “Agrocide” 7, to prevent re-infestation. A number of adult moths were seen, and it is anticipated that these may become very numerous later. Castor oil plants on some African plantations were examined. They were found to be also heavily attacked, and it cannot be expected that the area will yield much harvest this year. According to the local natives, these larvae are present every year, but do not normally cause damage. It seems very probable, however, that some reduction in yield is usual, and it may well be that the outbreak of 1952 — 53 was connected with the unusually dry weather. Acknowledgement. I am indebted to Mr. E. C. G. Pinhey of the Coryn- don Museum, Nairobi, for the determination of the moth Euproctis rubri- costa Fawcett. A CHECK LIST OF NATAL BIRDS Readers who contemplate visiting South Africa will be interested to learn of the appearance of a check list of the birds of Natal and Zululand. This most excellent publication is the work of that indefatigable ornitholo- gist, Mr. P. A. Clancey, Director of the Durban Museum & Art Gallery and is published by that institution. In addition to being an up-to-date list of all species and races of birds known to occur in the areas covered, a brief account of the status of each is given and details of their distribution. The author is to be congratulated on producing such an accurate and useful addition to African ornitholo- gical literature. The Editor. October, 1953. 69 SOME SPECULATIONS ON THE SUDDEN OCCURRENCE OF FLOODS IN THE HISTORY OF LAKE MAGADI By Dr. T. H. White. Along what is apparently an old shore-line of Lake Magadi, at a level of about 35 to 40 feet above the present level of the soda, limestone moulds (“external casts”) of logs and twigs are common. (Fig. 1). They are particu- larly abundant on the eastern shore of the eastern arm of the lake. Recently, Mr. P.R.O. Bally, of the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi, gave me a similar mould from Lake Hannington, still containing the remains of a twig. He had questioned the local natives about the occurrence of such limestone-encrusted wood, and was informed that according to their tribal lore a great flood had occurred about thirty generations ago, killing many people and leaving the trees encrusted with stone. I have never found more than a few fibres of vegetable material within the moulds from Magadi, but it is of some intex'est that over twenty years ago a twig was dredged up in mud from a depth of 10 ft. 9 in. below the soda. This gave rise to much speculation at the time, and it was sent to the Natural History Museum in London. The report of the Museum authorities was that the twig was, geologically speaking, very recent, ana might have been buried for anything from a few days to some thousands of years ! (Stevens, 1932). At and above the wood-mould level, shells of the giant snail Achatina fulica are common. Mr. B. Verdcourt of the East African Agricultural Research Organisation kindly identified these for me, and gave his opinion that they were probably not more than a few hundreds of years old. The species does not occur alive in or near Magadi now, and indeed the only living snail I have seen in Magadi was a solitary specimen of Bloyetia. I have, however, found a few fragments of a shell of Achatina of much more ancient date in some gravel below an old lake bed, about 100 feet above the soda, some three miles south of Magadi. Parkinson (1914) and Temperley (1951) comment on the layer of black mud that lies beneath the soda at a depth of about 10 feet. Temperley refers to it as “accumulating at the bottom of the lake.” Recent investiga- tions by the Magadi Soda Company Limited indicated that the mud is not in fact at the bottom of the lake, but is merely a layer below which there is a considerable depth of soda. All of these facts could be explained by a comparatively recent flood- ing of Lake Magadi, which, if it took place at the same time as the Lake Hannington flood, would have been about thirty African generations ago, say 500 years, i.e. about the year 1450. This would correspond more or less in chronology and level with one of the lake levels in the Nakuru area designated G6 by Nilsson (1952). An influx of fresh water would dis.solve the top layer of soda, and on evaporating would leave behind it a layer 70 Lake Magadi Floods. Vol. xxir of mud beneath re-crystallised soda. The occurrence of Achatina would fit in with less dry climatic conditions then than now. If it is accepted that the main pluvials of East Africa in the Pleistocene period were in some way analogous to the chief European and Indian glaciations, there seems to be no reason why lesser pluvials should not be associated with minor climatic changes in Europe. Pettersen (1912) states that the world’s most recent period of rigorous climate occurred about the year 1433. This correlates pretty well with the estimated date of the Hannington flood. Floods of the late Pleistocene pluvials have left considerable beds of silt in the Magadi area. Those that I have had leisure to investigate occur at heights of up to three hundred feet above the level of the soda. Some of these contain wood-moulds, but they also contain rootlet-holes far below the depth that any present-day plants reach. This seems to indicate that during the great pluvials the water of the lakes that formed was not highly alkaline, since no vegetation will grow in soil saturated with alkaline spring-water. Furthermore, compressions and sub-fossils of fish (kindly identified for me by Mr. H. Copley of the Coryndon Museum as Tilapia nilotica), which are considerably larger than the present-day small- species Tilapia that occur in the alkaline spring-water, are found in these beds and also bear out the conclusion that the water of Magadi was much less alkaline in ancient times than any flowing into the lake today. Unless the vast soda-deposit of Magadi is of very recent origin this calls for some explanation. In the case of the higher and most distant beds (which extend to the Nguruman escarpment about 20 miles west of Magadi), the comparative freshness of the water could conceivably have been due to dilution. Dilution would probably not explain, however, the features of the lowest beds — the “High Magadi Beds” of Temperley — which do not extend for more than half-a-dozen miles from the edges of the soda, and that only in a north-south direction by reason of the echelon-fault topography of the area. The High Magadi Beds contain silt of two main types. There is a lower layer, un-varved with an earthy fracture, and an upper layer, varved with a shaley cleavage. Where they overlie the chert series the lower layer rests upon what is apparently a thin layer of colloidal silica, varying from an inch to ten inches in thickness, interspersed with narrow bands of black mud containing black compressions of Tilapia in vast numbers. The earthy layer of silt contains only sparse and fragmented fish-remains that re- quire prolonged searching for. In the upper varved layer there are numer- ous T. nilotica compressions at various levels (Fig. 2). These features are not easy to explain, but it occurred to me that they might be accounted for as follows; Initial intermittent floods brought fresh-water fish into contact with the siliceous springs that then existed, killing them in large numbers and leaving the lower compi'essions in and just above the silica. Then there occurred a massive flood, bringing down with it the soft unconsolidated lacustrine deposits of an earlier period Fig. 1. — Limestone TwigyMoulds. October, 1953. Lake Magadi Floods. 71 from the surrounding country, with their fish-rernains that became frag- mented in the process. This silt rapidly sealed off the silica and the soda so that a comparatively fresh-water lake formed, which in time deposited the varved silt in which the fish that died in dry seasons were well- preserved. A rough estimate of the number of pairs of light and dark bands in the upper layers of the High Magadi Beds is 15,000. Still earlier floodings could have caused the beds of cherty gravel, partially consolidated into a breccia by siliceous material, that occur near the Hospital at Magadi. Temperley points out that the chert series was probably laid down before the faults that formed the “Magadi Scarp” occurred. These faults probably raised the gravels to their present level. They shew several layers entrapping menisci of alluvium that contain silicified roots and twigs. The hypothesis of sudden floods — much greater than the recent Hannington flood — is not a new idea. Gregory (1921) suggests just such a cause for cenozoic fossil beds of a different nature elsewhere. Such floodings in the Magadi area, over a period of perhaps half a milion years, could account, by frequent recrystallisations, for the extraordinary purity of the soda deposits in Lake Magadi. A cogent question is “Will the lake be flooded deeply again?” for such a calamity would be of serious economic importance. The answer is yes — but, if the climatological deductions of Pettersen are correct, and if pluvials in East Africa are related to European climates, not for four or five hundred years ! I have to thank the Magadi Soda Company Limited for access to un- published material, and also Messrs. Bally and Copley of the Coryndon Museum, Messrs. Baker and Thompson of the Kenya Geological Depart- ment, Mr. Verdcourt of the Agricultural Research Organisation, and Mr. Saphira of the Kenya Game Department, for their help, and especially for their tolerance of my amateur peregrinations and ruminations. References Copley, H. (1953) Personal Communication. Gregory, G.W. (1921) “The Rift Valleys and Geology of East Africa”, London. Nilsson, E. (1952) “Pleistocene Climatic Changes in East Africa” Proc. 1st. Pan-Afr. Cong. Prehist. 45. Parkinson, J. (1914) “The East African Trough in the Neighbourhood of the Soda Lakes”, Geog. J. xliv. 4. 33. Pettersen, O. (1912) “Climatic Variations in Historic and Prehistoric Time” Svensk. Hydrog-Biol. Komm. Skrift. No. 5. Stevens, J.A. (1932) “Lake Magadi and its Alkaline Springs” (Unpublished report to the Magadi Soda Co., Ltd) Temperley, B.N. (1951) “Report on some Geological and Geophysical Observations in the vicinity of Lake Magadi”. (Unpublished). Verdcourt, B. (1953) Personal Communication. 72 VOL. XXII AMBOSELI NATIONAL RESERVE. By Merrell Dalton Amboseli lake, an area of .some ninety square miles, still fills in the rains, a time when the National Park lodge is closed to visitors, the game scatters, and the Masai tribesmen are able to move out to other grazing grounds. In the dry months an enormous quantity of Masai stock as well as thousands of head of game are dependent upon the water in the swamp around 01 Tukai where the lodge and Gethin’s well known ‘Rhino Camp’ are situated. It is truly an amazing sight as the living frieze of animals starts moving across the dry white lake beds to the green of the swamp : a veritable ‘sundowner parade’ of wildbeeste, zebra, giraffe and gazelle, interspersed here and there with well regulated flocks of sheep and goats and black, white, red and piebald cattle. The ground in the vicinity of the swamp is literally pulverised, and a fine dust rises in clouds like white steam, often completely enveloping the entire landscape. On a clear day, however, or before the wind or trampling hoofs disturbs it, the scenery, with its pale lake beds, forests of green-gold acacias, (fever trees), belts of palm and emerald swamps with the background of Kilimanjaro, its majestic dome sprinkled by snow, forms an unforgetable and magnificent spectacle. Some safari firms now include a tour of the main swamp at 01 Tukai as part of their game-viewing programme when at Amboseli, and, although seasonal, many different species of waterfowl as well as storks, egrets, plover, and the sacred ibis can usually be seen foregathered along the open margin. Colonel Gethin, (Namanga river hotel) who knows this area so well, tells me that large flocks of duck come in with the rains, and are occasionally joined by knob-nosed geese; lily trotters have been noted there, whilst pelicans frequent a small pan, north east of the camp, where water lies out for some time after the smaller soaks have turned to sun- baked mud. During sundry patrols around this swamp we continually saw white egrets, sacred ibis, Egyptian geese, stilts, the Saddle-billed stork, (a soli- tary specimen), many small waders which I took to be sand plover, three or four wood ibis, great white herons, grey herons, bittern, and the usual noisy parties of blacksmith plover. Both greese and the sacred ibis were extremely tame and obviously used to visitors ! At the southern end of this swamp there is a tiny spring, hidden among rushes and ferns, where ice cold water bubbles straight from Kiliman- jaro’s snows. This spring and its overflow feeds the swamp area, and it is quite usual to see elephant, buffalo and sometimes a Bohor’s reedbuck feeding along the edge of the reeds and the feathery papyrus. Hippo are in residence at 01 Tukai, but are seldom seen outside in the dry weather Wildebeeste at Amboseli — Typical Landscape. Egret and, Sacred Ibis — 01 Tukai Swamp. October, 1953. Amboseli National Reserve. 73 though their tracks are evident, showing the progress of their nocturnal wanderings. A drive round this vicinity usually produces a “mixed bag” gazelle, dikdik, possibly oryx, (Callotis), lesser kudu, I’hino, lion, kongoni, cheetah bat-eared fox, baboon in large troops, giraffe, and of course the ubiquitous gnu and zebra. Visitors will not fail to see Greater bustard which are present through- out the whole of the Amboseli Reserve in enormous numbers, there are plenty of lesser bustard, yellow-necked francolin, Grant’s francolin, guinea fowl and plover; ground honrbill are often seen, and those solemn scavengers Marabou storks stand ghoulishly in groups around the water. One evening no less than four great Bateleur eagles had come there to drink, and a glorious sight they made with their scarlet ceres, beaks and feet, and black, busby-like crests, against the brilliant green of the rushes and grass ! Inside, however, the stand of papyrus is so high and dense that the only indication of feeding buffalo, rhino, or even elephant, is the flutter of the white cattle egrets as they hover up and down de- ticking their huge charges. SHORT NOTES A Species of Door Snail in Uganda Very few members of Door Snails (Family Clausiliidae) have been re- corded from Africa south of Abyssinia. Austrohalea africana (M. & P.) occurs in South Africa. Two species refer- ed to the genus Clausilia (but certainly not belonging to that genus sensu stricto) have been found in Tropical East Africa but are so rare and their habitats unknown that no further material has become available for anatomical investigation. During October 1952 I discovered a single specimen of a snail belonging to either Balea or Austrohalea. It was on the bark of Acacia albida Del. together with numbers of Succinea sp. (there are several terrestrial species of this genus in E. Africa) at Moroto, Karamoja District, Eastern Uganda. Despite several hours searching on every available tree no further speci- mens could be found. Undoubtedly further specimens will be found in East Africa but the record of a single Clausiliidae from Uganda is of interest though the species is not known and even the genus uncertain. Door Snails may be recognised by their elongated, spiral form and brown colour, but see illustration (figure 6) in my Snails and Slugs paper in the present Journal. B. Verdcourt. 28th October, 1952. A Meat-Eating Duiker It would be interesting to hear whether any readers of the Journal have known of a duiker eating meat ? 74 Short Notes VOL. XXII “Teeka”, the young female duiker owned by Mr. Taberer, Warden of the Amboseli National Reserve, ate fresh raw liver, picking the bits out of the dog’s plate with evident enjoyment ! She appeared regularly at break- fast time to ask us for small pieces of bread but showed no interest what- soever in toa.st, biscuits, vegetable or fruit. The rest of the day was spent foraging around the Lodge among the weeds, leaves, and grass under the fever trees. I have asked several white hunters and game wardens if they have heard of duikers eating meat but so far no one seems to have had a similar experience. Merrell Dalton. The Temporary Preservation of Small Birds with Fine Table Salt. The simple method described below will enable persons without train- ing in field taxidermy to collect specimens of small birds — up to weaver size — for the Coryndon Museum, Nairobi. Birds preserved by the follow- ing method will remain in good condition for at least ten days, probably much longer. It is most important that fine Table Salt only be used. Method : 1. Open the bird’s beak and pack in as much salt as possible, pushing it well down into the crop with a match-stick. 2. Burst the eyes with a pin and pack in as much salt as possible. 3. Make an incision over the abdomen (not the breastbone) and remove the viscera with a pair of forceps. Note the sex and condition of gonads. Rupture the diaphragm by pushing the points of the forceps upwards into the thorax. Pack the abdominal cavity and thorax with as much salt as possible. 4. Label the specimen (in pencil) with locality, date of collection, sex, collector and colours of soft parts. 5. Roll the specimen in soft paper or cotton-wool and pack in a card- board, tin or wooden box and post airmail to John G. Williams, The Coryndon Museum, P.O. Box 658, Nairobi, Kenya Colony. Label the parcel “Natural History Museum Specimens : of no commercial value”. 6. Your assistance in adding to our collection v/ill be greatly appreciated. Thank you. J. G. Williams. Kalinzu Forest Fruit Bats On 8 January 1953 Mr. H. C. Dawkins and I were camped at a sawmill in the south of the Kalinzu Forest, Ankole, Uganda, and shortly before October, 1953. Short Notes. 75 dusk we noticed large numbers of bats flying overhead towards the north, one to three hundred feet above the forest. In the visible part of the sky, which represented a .section of the stream of bats less than half a mile wide, we counted them passing at a rate of three to four hundred a minute, from 7.20 p.m. (possibly before) to at least 7.45 when it became too dark to see. We had no evidence of the total width of the bat stream, but there was no noticeable falling off in density on either side of us. The figures indicate that probably more than 10,000 bats were involved. The great majority of the bats flew steadily and purposefully on their way, but a few weaved among the treetops and half a dozen fluttered round and temporarily settled in a tall Parinari holstii in the mill clear- ing. A specimen collected has been identified as Eidolon helyum, a species known to occur in Uganda and western Kenya. I observed this flight later in the month when I was again staying at the sawmill, so it is evidently a regular nightly movement and not a seasonal migration. I watched for their return one dawn but saw nothing, so I presume it takes place in the dark. Three problems wait to be solved : where do the bats roost, and where and on what do they feed? To the south is partially cultivated grassland with valley forests; to the north lies the forests, then grassy hills with banana shambas in the valleys, and then the Lake George flats. If they feed in the forest, the most likely fruit seems to be the Parinari or Grey Plum, which is the most abundant tree there. Stanley in “In Darkest Africa” records a similar bat flight when camped near the Aruwimi or Ituri River. H. A. Osmaston. Notice : The 11th International Ornithological Congress, presided over by Sir Landsborough Thomson, London, will be held in Basel (Switzerland) from May 29th to June 5th 1954. During the week of the Congress, 5 days will be devoted to meetings and 2 to excursions. Before and after the Congress (May 25 — 28 and June 7 — 19) excursions will be arranged, to enable members to become acquaint- ed with the Swiss avifauna, especially in the Alps and Lower Alps. The Congress fee is 30 Swiss francs. The prospectus, containing registration form and detailed information, will be distributed this summer. Applications to attend and to contribute scientific papers, should be sent in before February 28, 1954 and address- ed to : — XL INTERNATIONAL ORNITHOLOGICAL CONGRESS, ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN, BASEL/SWITZERLAND, which is at disposal for any inquiries needed. Basel, June 1953.... 76 VOL. XXII ESSAY The Committee of the East Africa Natural History Society has pleasure m publishing one of the prize-winning entries of its recent Natural History Esssay Competition. WHY DO WE PRESERVE WILD LIFE? An Essay by Francis Ojany, aged 17, of the Alliance High School, Kikuyu. It has been established that there is a close relationship between the lives of plants and animals by which any interference with the one must necessarily affect the other. Nothing lives or dies unto itself; everything is a retainer to some other part of nature. Cats have to do with the clover crop in England and with the incidence of plague in India; earthworms effect the wheat supply and water-wagtails the success of sheep farming. Bees and flowers are hand in glove; the thrush plants mistletoe and ants sow the seeds of the broom. Long chains bind successive generations of plants and animals together and any disturbance of the links making up these biological chains upsets the delicate balance of nature. To many unthinking people, it would seem that the preservation of wild life in the Colony or indeed anywhere else was a project unworthy of serious consideration or one deserving the expenditure of money and time. From a purely humane point of view, the idea of killing animals wan- tonly is surely something rather dreadful and brutal to most men. The indiscriminate destruction of plants is senseless since it destroys some- thing of beauty; cruelty to an innocent dumb creature with feelings pos- sibly as sensitive as our own, is something far worse and unworthy of civilized man. Before we ever dream of destroying the wild life in the Colony, surely we should try to discover valuable biological relationship between man and animals. In this age of electricity, steam and jet-propulsion, man remains more strangely dependent for his existence upon animal life than upon anything else. He has made animals to be tamed and trained to do work. He uses their products every day of life, and as a result his attitude towards the animals he has subjugated has been wiser than his attitude towards his fellow creatures. We have much too to learn from the heritage of wild life in the Colony. If we look back into the distant past, we can there learn that man was not the first home-maker; he was not the first engineer; he was not the first to make provision against the morrow. He was anticipated in each sphere by the brute creation; insects, birds and mammals, set an example that he was slow to follow and we may still learn if we so desire valuable lessons from the bee and the ant, the squirrel and the beaver, the gazelle and the lion. Studies on wild life are now helping to solve the mystery of the past. The testimony of the rocks, brought to light by the palaeontologist, corre- October, 1953. Essay. 77 lated with the examination of the developing embryos of existing repre- sentatives of mammals, are making plain many of the details of the long story of mankind. The importance of preserving the wild life of our Colony further comes home to us when we realise that men and women from all over the world are beginning to want to make regular pilgrimmage to this Mecca of animal life, for one of the greatest attractions of East Africa is the marvel- lous abundance of its wild fauna. From the point of view of the sportsman and the naturalist, it would be an evil day when the herds of game dis- appeared from the veldt. Governm.ent has wisely guarded against a repeti- tion of the meaningless slaughter which has destroyed the interest and recreation of thousands of men and. women in other parts of the world, by carefully considered Game Regulations. These, while liberal to the sports- man, aie framed with a due regard to the protection of game. Yet better still are the efforts of those who with imagination and foresight seek to preserve in National Parks and reserved areas, the wild life of our Colony. If the present system is continued and expanded, there appears to be no reason why East Africa should not retain its happy hunting grounds for generations to come. Today in our National Parks, the plains at most seasons of the year, teem with game of all description and nothing can be happier than an afternoon spent amongst these lovely creatures who are beginning to lose their fear of man and of his weapons of destruction. Nothing could be sadder than the time which is coming and faster than we think, unless we make adequate provision, when the habits and haunts of our v/ild creatures will be but memories, recorded in books cherished and preserved, written by those who remember, back in those wonderful days, when wild animals once roamed over our Colony and where nature once put on her most glorious show. OBITUARY As we go to press we very deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. H. J. Alien-Turner. Mr. Turner was closely associated with the Society from its inception and was a member of committee and vice- president for many years. When the Natural History Society started the first Nairobi Mluseum in 1911 Alien-Turner prepared the initial exhibits, and from, then on he was intimately associated with the work of the Society and of the three successive Museums. Mr. Alien-Turner fiist came to Kenya in 1908 as chief taxidermist to the Smithsonian Institution Expedition led by Colonel, later Presi- dent, Theodore Rooseveldt. He is deeply mourned by a widow and four children. A detailed obituary will appear in our next Journal. PRfNTED IN Kenya By W. Boyd & Co. (printers) Ltd. 6 06 / Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society FEBRUARY, 1954. VOL. XXII. No. 3(95) EAST AFRICA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. Patrons. » His Excellency The Hon. Sir Evelyn Baring, k.c.m.g., k.c.v.o. Sir Philip Mitchell, k.c.m.g. Sir Henry Moore, k.c.m.g. President. Hugh Copley Esq., o.b.e. Vice-President. R. W. Rayner Esq.,- b.a., a.i.c.t.a. Executive Committee. P. R. O. Bally Esq., Colonel M. H. Cowie, m.l.c. W. Hale Esq., b.a. J. S. Karmali Esq., b.pharm., ph.c., d.b.a. Miss E. J. Blencowe, s.r.n., s.c.m. J. McDonald Esq., c.b.e., d.f.c. Miss M. D. Ball. P. J. Greenway, Esq., o.b.e., d.sc. (hon.). f.l.s. Secretary. Miss D. Ewing. Hon. Editor. J. G. Williasns Esq., m.b.o.u. Hon. Treasurer. W. R. Bowles Esq. Hon. Librarian. R. A. F. Brenan Esq., m.a. All correspondence in connection with this Journal should be addressed to : ; The Hon. Secretary, P.O. Box 658, Nairobi. Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society FEBRUARY, 1954. VOL. XXII. No. 3(95) Cover Design — ‘VULTURES IN FLIGHT’ — by P R. O. Bally. CONTENTS The Identification of Kenya Birds of Prey in Flight. Part 1, Vultures. (Illustrated) By J. G. Williams ... 78 Bird Notes from Molo. Part 1, The Dam. By Mrs. D. M. Sheppard ... ... ... ... ... ... 80 Africa’s Rarest Cowries. (Illustrated) By L. E. Berry 82 English Names for Kenya Moths. By A. L. H. Townsend ... 86 Common Names for Moths : Another View. By E. C. G. Pinhey 89 An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. By Dr. D. G. MacInnes ... ... 90 Notes on the Aloes of Southern Ethiopia & Somalia. (Illustrated) By Dr. G. W. Reynolds ... 102 Tree Euphorbias as Timber Trees. (Illustrated) By P. R. O. Bally ... ... ... ... .. ... . . 105 The Identification of the Spoor and Dung of East African Mammals. Part 1, Antelopes. (Illustrated) By Dr. P. R. Hesse ... 107 Obituaries 106, 111 Book Reviews 115 78 VOL. XXII THE IDENTIFICATION OF KENYA BIRDS OF PREY IN FLIGHT. PART 1, VULTURES. By J. G. Williams. Birds of Prey in general — there are some exceptions — with their confusing sequence of immature and adult plumages form a group which the beginner finds difficult to identify in the field. Even with the aid of the various well-illustrated bird books which are available in East Africa the recognition of raptorial birds is not easy. Descriptions in such books are usually adequate when one is working out the identity of a dead hawk and helpful when one can examine a resting bird through glasses. But they fall short of the ideal where a bird of prey flying overhead is concern- ed. The object of this series of papers is to fill this gap in our literature. ‘ Anyone desiring a wider knowledge of our birds of prey is strongly advised to make use of the study collections housed in the Bird Room of the Coryndon Museum, where a series of specimens of most species, illus- trating age variation and dimorphism, may be laid out for inspection. It is only by studying such specimens in addition to the perusal of the litera- ture that one can really get to know our vultures, eagles and hawks. The Vultures. The appearance in flight of vultures as a group is rather difficult to define. Briefly their smallish heads, generally broad wings and short tails are diagnostic. Vultures are also more likely to congregate in the air in numbers than is usual with most other birds of prey. RiippeH’s Griffon Vulture. Gyps ruppellii rilppellii (Brehm). Plate 1. Adult. Wingspan 8 feet. The two main distinguishing features are the scaly or spotted appearance of the underside of the body (formed by dark brown feathers with whitish-buff tips) and a series of narrow white lines, sometimes broken, on the underside of the wings. At close quarters the bill is seen to be pale greenish-grey. Immature. Differs from the adult in being brown, streaked blackish below, with a narrow white streak parallel to the fore edge of the wing. In this plumage extremely difficult to distinguish from the immature White-backed Griffon, but slightly larger. White-backed Griffon Vulture. Pseudogyps africanus (Salvador!). Plate 1. Adult. Wingspan 7 feet. The White-backed Griffon has uniform pale buff underparts, a dark crop patch, black head and bill and a broad white band along the fore edge of the wing. In some examples the white wing band is much broader than is shown in the illustration. Immature. Underparts dark brown with indistinct blackish streaking. Very like the immature Ruppell’s Griffon but a little smaller. til* j i . Wij'k -?K-adr j Whit€*beacleci Viitbyi'e. twmahire Plate 1. Vultures in flight. Tii h I fir I ‘ ^ .. k m Lappef-faced Vulture C 9 y pi s (3 f) Vu i t U !' 6 f y p 1 1 1 i o V u 1 1 u re . immature Hooded Vyitui'e Plate 2. Vultures in flight. February, 1954. Identification of Kenya Bii'ds of Prey in Flight. 79 Nubian or Lappet-faced Vulture. Torgos tracheliotus nuhicus (Smith). Plate 2. Adult. Wingspan 9 feet. This is the largest and most powerful of our vultures. Underparts of body blackish-brown with two contrasting white thigh patches and a short white streak along the fore edge of the wing. The reddish head and large bill are good field characters at close quarters. Immature. Resembles adult but thigh patches often brown, not whitish. White-headed Vulture. Trigonoceps occipitalis (Burchell). Plate 1. Adult. Wingspan 7 feet. This is a very distinct species. Its field char- acters are white head, blackish breast, white abdomen and thighs and dark wings with a large white secondaries patch. Immature. Differs from the adult in lacking the white secondaries patch, but has a conspicuous white line bordering the under wing coverts; abdomen and thighs usually mainly white (see plate 1). Egyptian Vulture. Neophron percnopterus percnopterus (Linnaeus). Plate 2. Adult. Wingspan 5 feet. In adult plumage the Egyptian Vulture is easy to recognise, being entirely white except for black flight feathers and a yellow face, the tail is diamond shaped. Immature. The first immature plumage is entirely brown, followed by a grey, then a grey and white dress until the bird reaches maturity. It is best identified by its diamond shaped tail and rather narrow wings. The Hooded Vulture has broad wings and a short tail. Hooded Vulture. Necrosyrtes monachus pileatus (Burchell). Plate 2. Adult. Wingspan 5 feet. This is an entirely dark-plumaged vulture with broad wings and a short tail; there is sometimes a little white on the crop and thighs, and the wings have a curious silvery lustre in certain lights. Immature. This plumage is very like that of the adult from which it does not differ in any important detail in flight. 80 VOL. XXII BIRD NOTES FROM MOLO — 1. THE DAM. By Mrs. D. M. Sheppard. To any bird lover a stretch of water, however small, is an irresistable attraction; there is always something to watch. If one’s hopes of seeing a rare duck or wader are rarely realized there are still the birds of the reeds and grass verges, the birds that come down to drink and those that fly overhead. Since I came to live up here just eighteen months ago the bird life of our dam has proved a fascinating study, particularly having regard to our altitude which is nearly 9,000 feet. The dam is quite small, only about three acres, very shallow and weedy, lying at the foot of a steep hill on the edge of the forest. Last year, when there was still plenty of water our more common residents were two pairs of Red-knobbed Coots, which bred in July, Dabchicks, Moorhens, Black Crakes and Yellow-billed Ducks varying from a solitary pair to forty or fifty. African or Southern Pochards were fairly regular visitors and sometimes we would have a pair of the attractive Red-billed Teal or their more drab cousins the Hottentot Teal. In April of last year a solitary Garganey was seen on two occasions, presumably on migration. In August I was excited to spot my first White-backed Ducks and so fast asleep were they (a party of five of them among the water-lily leaves) that it took me some time to identify them, their white backs only showing when preening or in flight. They remained with us almost continuously until the dam started to dry out in December. Our most common small waders are Green and Wood Sandpipers, the latter very tame and in large numbers in February when the rapid drying up of the dam made conditions ideal for them. During this month a Marsh Sandpiper was also seen and the Common Sandpipers visit us occasion- ally. In December and again in February we were lucky to have a pair of Stilts for a few days. In January and February two pair of Snipe be- came temporary residents of the grass verges. They would sit so tight that they were in danger of being caught by the dogs. Whether they were the Ethiopian or Common variety we were never able to discover. In July I went to England for three months and returned to find the dam empty save for a few small puddles but one pair of faithful Wood Sandpipers were still with us and an occasional Green one still visits us. Of the large wading birds, we have had Grey and Black-headed Herons, Hammerkops, Yellow-billed Egrets and the stately Kavirondo Cranes as regular visitors. Sacred Ibis and White Storks were seen in February, and in May, for the first time, we had a Saddlebill Stork. I have always associated this magnificent bird with lower and warmer regions but he February, 1954. Bird Notes from Molo — The Dam. 81 seems to like it up hei’e and has been a fairly regular visitor ever since. But our greatest thrill was when, one day last month, we spotted two strangers stalking about the dry floor of the dam and these turned out to be a pair of Woolly-necked Storks {Dissoura episcopus). Their visit, alas, was all too brief, for as we were watching them from close by a Mountain Buzzard swooped out of the forest and saw them off in no uncertain fashion. They circled over our heads, then up and up they soared to such a tremendous height that even through our field glasses we could no longer see the two specks that were our Woolly-necked Storks. But it was not long before we had another new species to add to our list. About three weeks ago a solitary Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) appeared and at the time of writing (November 26th) is still with us. He is a big bird, a good deal bigger than Abdim’s and very smart with his red legs and bill. And what of the little birds that find their living around the dam and among the rushes ? Wagtails are the most numerous and varied. Wells’ and the African Pied species are residents — the latter, though, preferring the garden to the dam. During the winter months we have large numbers of Yellow and Blue-headed, and solitary Grey Wagtails have been seen on migration. Yellow-throated Long-claws and Pipits (species unidentified) are also residents as is the ubiquitous Stonechat. At intervals large flocks of Masai Waxbills swarm among the rushes and sometimes we are lucky enough to have an influx of the beautiful Malachite Sunbirds — though what should attract them to the dam, where they perch on the rushes, I have never been able to discover. And last, but by no means least, mention must be made of the birds of prey that are so much part of the life of the dam. Augur Buzzards, Mountain Buzzards and Crested Hawk Eagles are always to be seen some- where near and in the winter months African and European Marsh Harriers and Pallid Harriers quarter in fields around. All these species have been seen on many occasions motionless on the ground either on the edge or on a tuft of grass in the middle of the dam, the male Pallid Harrier looking from a distance very like a seagull. The ducks are very nervous of these birds of prey, particularly the Harriers, and when the 'water is too low for them to be able to take cover in the rushes they become so jumpy that they will make off as soon as one appears in sight, often before I am able to spot it. The sandpipers, on the other hand, take little notice of them. On one occasion our dogs put up a Marsh Owl in the long tussock grass near the dam. It flew a short way then flopped down in the grass again, repeating this several times and never going far away. And so when my husband comes in from riding or I from walking before breakfast, the first question usually is — “Seen anything new on the dam today?” and there is nearly always something of interest to record or discuss. Life is never dull with a stretch of water nearby. 82 VOL. XXII AFRICA’S RAREST COWRIES. By Lloyd E. Berry, Los Angeles, U.S.A. There are places in the world where collectors of marine shells may find a greater number of species than is provided by the African coast, but the “Dark Continent” has the distinction of providing some of the most interesting and rarest shells. Many shell enthusiasts collect all groups or families of shells; others concentrate on certain families such as the Cypraeidae, more commonly called Cowries. Cowries are considered to be the “aristocrats” of all shells, for in their natural state they are found with a high glossy polish and need no human means of bringing forth their beauty. The east coast of Africa offers over 45 species of cowries for collectors who know where and when to search. The south-east coast from Mozam- bique to the Cape offers a large number of these, among them some of the rarest. As many of the East African cowries are quite common over the whole of the Indian Ocean, east to Australia thence north into the Pacific Ocean, we will attempt to list only those considered rare or semi-rare. The names as given are first the genus, then the species followed by the name of the authority or person’s name who described the particular species. The East African cowrie that seems to be number one on all collectors’ lists is the one known as Bernaya fultoni Sowerby. The exact number of this species in collections is not known, but it is certainly very few. How- ever, it is not a cowrie to be had by combing the beaches unless perchance a dead specimen has been washed ashore by storms. (See figure) It is a deep water shell, usually obtained by dredging or trawling. Another source is the stomach of a fish commonly called the “mussel- cracker” which seems to prefer molluscs of various sorts for its food instead of small fishes. The collector who is acquainted with fishermen or with people working in the canneries should have a better opportunity of obtaining this species if he is not already equipped with a boat for dredging or trawling. If fishermen would only realize it, the value of this shell is greater than the fish within which it is found ! Bernaya fultoni is easy to identify for it is among the larger cowries, the average size being from 55mm to 70mm in length and 35mm to 40mm in width and height. It can be called pear-shaped with the top being quite humped. The dorsal or top markings are irregular and scattered, One of Africa’s Rare Cowries, Bernaya fultoni Sowerby. The specimen illustrated above is in the collection of Mrs. H. Boswell of Johannesburg, to whom the Society is indebted for the photographs, (x 0.9) February, 1954. Africa’s Rarest Cowries. 83 of a reddish-brown or chestnut colour on a light background. The lateral or side markings become a series of large dark spots which carry part way over on the base, which is white. The teeth on both columellar and outer or labial lips are coarse and red in colour. The known locality for this shell is around the Natal coasti and specimens have been collected in St. Francis Bay. Cypraeovula amphithales Melvill is also a South East African cowrie ranging from Durban to Port Elizabeth. It is considered rare. To the beginner or unobserving collector this shell may be and has been mistaken for the more common Cypraeovula capensis. However, its average size is 24 to 27mm which is 3 or 4 mm shorter than capensis in length. The dorsum or top of amphithales is smooth whereas the ribs or ridges and grooves on capensis continue over the top from side to side. The sides or lateral zones of amphithales are spotted and on the few shells I have observed the left side was spotted so densely that they became almost a solid dark pattern or wide line along the full length of the shell. This never occurs in capensis. Both of these species have a pale brownish to yellow background with an irregular dorsal blotch of a darker brown. The dorsal blotch on amphithales is weak and irregular and could be called just a group of irregular markings whereas the dorsal blotch on capensis is solid or just one marking. As I have never seen a fresh specimen of Cypraeovula fuscorubra Shaw I can only give the minor details of it from drawings and photographs which I have seen. It is sometimes known as C. similis Gray. It occurs :around the Cape Hope region and my one dead specimen is from Cape Agulhas. Schilder’s book on the Cypraeas lists this shell as common but I have found it difficult to obtain, even from collectors who live where it occurs. I presume it to be a deep water shell and dead specimens are washed ashore by storms. The dead specimen at hand measures 41mm in length. The columellar teeth are short and do not extend over the inner lip. The teeth on the labial or outer lip are also short but more coarse and extend the full length of the lip. The aperture is wide, especially so at the anterior end. The shell is gibbous or swollen and inflated. The left side is round and full with a convex base, whereas the right side has a rather heavy margin which continues the full length of the shell and over both terminals. The base in fresh specimens is a pale rust colour and the teeth are white. The dorsum or top is of a dark rust colour, darker than the base and has no spots on the top or sides. This shell is not to be confused with the common Cypraeovula fuscodentata which appears m numbers around Port Elizabeth and Port Alfred. I am sure that most collectors in the area of Algoa Bay, Port Alfred and East London are familiar with the little Cypraeovula edentula Gray 84 Africa’s Rarest Cmvries. VOL. XXII which is about 5/8 to 7/8 of an inch in length or approximately 22mm. This cowrie is rated as common in its area and has a pale tan background with an irregular dorsal pattern of darker tan or brown with dark brown spots on both sides; the right side has a heavy margin while the left side is smooth and rounded or inflated. The teeth in edentula are almost obsolete. I mention edentula only for comparison with the little Cypraeovula algoensis Gray, which appears much the same in shape, size and colour until one observes the base. In algoensis the dorsal colour may be more light in shade but both lips are adorned with teeth. The occurrence of algoensis compared to edentula is in the ratio of about 1 to 200, therefore I place it in the class of being rare. Palmadusta contaminata distans Schilder can be classed as very rare for there are very few of these in collections. It is considered large if over 2 inch or about 13mm. The teeth are small to obsolete, the right side is margined. The colour of the top is pale yellow or cream with faint brown spots, the spots being more numerous on the sides. The teeth and base are white. The South East African Palmadusta ziczac is called variety or sub- species misella Perry. Its average size is slightly larger than Palmadusta contaminata and is from 16mm to 18mm in length. The colour is an off- white with a series of zigzag or arrow markings of pale brown or chestnut. The base and teeth are yellowish. This shell is not to be confused with Palmadusta diluculum Reeve; diluculum is large, very dark and much more common than ziczac, although at one time it was called by that name due to its pattern. Erosaria marginalis Dillwyn. Although this cowrie is most uncommon its range extends from northern Kenya to the northern Cape Hope area. Its average size is about 1 inch or 26 mm and it cannot be confused with any other cowrie in this area. Its ground colour is a pale rust with a trace of lavender throughout. The terminals and base are lavender in colour. The columellar teeth are numerous but short while those on the labial or outer lip are slightly larger and coarser but less in number. The pale rust coloured dorsum is marked with numerous dark brown spots interspaced with pure white spots about one half the size of the brown ones. The only shell that comes close to marginalis in appearance is Erosaria helvola but helvola lacks the lavender colour on the base. Helvola is also a much heavier and solid shell. Its average size is also smaller. Africa offers many other rare cowries on its northern coast. There are also several on the west coast rated from common to rare but there seem to be few collectors around Cape Verde where they occur, consequently there are few of these in collections. February, 1954. Africa’s Rarest Cowries. 85 Collectors searching for cowries will be wise to confine their hunting to rocky shores and coral reefs. Many cowries prefer to remain under rocks and are inclined to avoid sandy beaches for the grains of sand get under the mantle and cause irritation. However, a few in the Phillippines do bury themselves in coarse sand, like members of the olive family. With the latest improvements in the aqua-lung, skin divers are able to go to greater depths (over 100 feet) and many cowries are now being collected from reefs and rocky bottoms that before were not obtainable except as dead specimens washed ashore. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the curing and cleaning of cowries, it is well to know that these shells can be ruined by improper cleaning methods. Many believe that boiling will blister or crack the shell but I have had very good luck with this method but only by placing the shells in cold water andl bringing it to a boil for not more than two minutes, then allowing to cool slowly. Blistering and cracking is caused by dropping the shell in water that is already boiling or dipping them in cold water while still very hot, causing too sudden contraction or expansion. A slower method is to place the shells in cold water and let the meat decay. The water should be changed every 48 hours for a week or ten days. Some good results have been obtained by placing the shells overnight in the ice compartment of an ice box or refrigerator as this causes the meat to shrink. In all cases, a small knife and bent wire are handy tools for removing the animal. To make a collection more interesting and of greater value, always label every specimen as to locality, date found and the name of the collector. Other information may be written on the label but these three items are essential. In the event of exchange other collectors will request exact data with specimens. Some families of shells are seldom found alive but whenever possible it is better to collect live specimens. Dead shells have little value unless very rare. Experienced collectors avoid specimens which have been dipped in varnish or lacquer to make them shine or look pretty. Cowries have a natural polish and do not need any help from mankind to make them look beautiful. 83 VOL. XXII ENGLISH NAMES FOR KENYA MOTHS By A. L. H. Townsend. In the number of this Journal for April 1953, Col. Stockley makes the suggestion that someone should invent English names for the Kenya months. This wholly admirable suggestion has been made more than once; but it does not appear to have been taken up. “Admirable”, because there can be little doubt that many potential entomologists, particularly among the younger generation, are scared off a study where they find such mouthfuls as Sphingaeniopsis, Odontocheilopteryx, and Thaumetopoea apologetica to be common and necessary currency. It has often been noticed how few and how small the insect collections are that appear among the Schools’ exhibits at the Agricultural Shows: a fact which seems to show lack of interest in entomology among the young people of the Colony. Why does this difference exist between the children of Kenya and those of England, who are at present showing more interest than ever before in the study of insect life? There must be some reason, in a country where insects are so numerous, interesting, and beautiful. Is it partly because of this matter of the names? If so, cannot simple English names be introduced to supplement those monstrosities (necessary to the scientist, but not, at first anyhow, to the ordinary person) mentioned above? This article has been written in the hope that it may start the ball rolling. It is purely tentative, and deals with the Moths only; my know- ledge of the Butterflies is too slight for me to venture on any suggestion of names for them. There are many people far more competent than myself to undertake that. There are difficulties, not the least of which is that many of our Kenya Moths may already have acquired names elsewhere — in South Africa, for instance — and to name them here might lead to confusion. But this would be straightened out in time, and does not seem to be a sufficient reason for postponing an initial effort. To invent an individual name for each of the enormous number of our moths will be a vast task, and take a very long time. But, again, that does not seem to provide a valid argument against making a beginning. Certain principles may be suggested, to begin with. 1. Species with names already well-established in England will, of course, retain them. There are more of these in Kenya than may be generality known. 2. The use of “Kenya” — or of any Kenya locality — as a prefix, should be avoided, since it may well prove, later on, to be inappropriate. The species may not be confined to Kenya, or to the particular locality. (Any- one who has studied the African moths will know that there are a very large number with the scientific name “capensis”, which occur in many places besides “The Cape”). February, 1954. English Names for Kenya Moths. 87 3. Where the scientific name is clearly descriptive of the moth, or of some individual characteristic or peculiarity, it should be translated and retained. An instance of this is “hirundo”, the Swallow; surely a most happy name for this delightful little Hawkmoth. 4. Well-established Group-names, such as Hawks, Tigers, Footmen, Pugs, etc., should be used when possible; that is, when their use does not make the name unwieldy. 5. Some Group-names however, such as Carpets, Rustics, Arches, have been stretched almost to absurdity in the English list. These should not be further extended. 6. “Proprietary” names; Wahlbergi, Platti, Jacksoni; should only be retained in English if no more elegant or appropriate name can be found. 7. Names should be easily intelligible, and not grotesciue or absurd. (How many English entomologists can say what is meant by “The Engrailed Clay”, “The Cousin German”, or “The Setaceous Hebrew Char- acter”? Or what could be more grotesque than “The Beautiful Snout”!) Here are a few suggestions, made with great diffidence, and covering only a few species from a small number of Moth-families. SPHINGIDAE (Hawkmoths). There are five of these in Kenya with well-known English names, the Death’s head. Convolvulus, Oleander, Striped, and Silver-striped Hawks. These need no new names. Suggestions : — H.osiris Greater Silver-stripe. H.eson H. balsaminae Clay-striped Hawk. L.hirundo M trochilus Lesser Hummingbird. B.medea B.charis Rose-and-silver. P.grayi P.falcatus Hook-tipped Hawk. Ps.postica SATURNHDAE. Since the only English species is the well-known “Emperor”, it seems that it may be well to keep this name with appropriate prefix, at least for those species with “target” markings on the wings. It may be necessary to keep the many “proprietary” names in this family; e.g. Nudaurelia rothschildi, Rothschild’s Emperor. ARCTHDAE. The “Footmen” lend themselves to descriptive names. D.pulchella is already known as the Crimson-speckled. E.peperita Dusty footman. E .sanguicosta Red-edged footman. E.distigmata Colon footman. E.discifera Cloudy footman. L.bipunctigera Twin-spot footman. M.chalybeata Steely footman, etc. Olive-striped Hawk. Swallow or Swallow hawk. Green Jewel. Brown-tipped Hawk. Black-based Hawk. 88 English Names for Kenya Moths. VOL. XXII SYNTOMIDE. A few well-known species : — A.chrysozona M.lateritia. Gold Belt. Th. negus (phasma) Phantom. Vermilion. M.flavivena. Yellow-veined. NOCTUIDAE. There are a number named in England; C.loreyi, Cosmopolitan; Eux.segetis, Turnip moth ; Eux.spinijera, Hubner’s Rustic : H.peltigera, Bordered Straw; and several others. I will suggest names for species of two Genera only out of this immense family. O .materna Chequered Orange-wing. O.fullonica Comma Orange-wing. O.divitiosa Broad-bordered Orange-wing. Those few will suffice to show the idea I have in mind. To bring this project into being will require co-operation • — much co-operation. It is possible, even probable, that in the Kenya Schools or elsewhere, there are names already current of which I am ignorant. If anyone interested cares to send me these, or suggestions for others, I will do my best to proceed with the next step, which is to secure the adoption and publication of the names. One stipulation however is necessary. The name, or suggested one, must be accompanied by the scientific name of the moth. (This can easily be obtained from the Museum) The reason is clear. A communication saying “A good name for that common moth, white with red blotches on the wings, would be ‘Nettle- rash’” will not be very helpful. It is almost impossible to recognise a moth from a casual description. In this matter of adoption and publication, the help of the Natural History Society, and of the Coryndon Museum, will clearly be necessary, and I feel sure that it will be forthcoming. Both these institutions are keen to increase the number of Naturalists in the country, and realise that one way of doing so is that now suggested — the provision of “easy” names for the insects. Perhaps a small committee might be set up to accept or reject suggestions, and to choose between alternative ones. Perhaps the Editor of this Journal would agree to publish occasional lists and the Museum authority to incorporate the new names in the label- system of the collection. At any rate, the first thing is to get a list of names. Let us get on with it. Plusia. P.limhirena P .indicator Othreis. Broken Y. P. orichalcea Pointer. P.sestertia Brass-wing. Plutocrat. February, 1954. 89 COMMON NAMES FOR MOTHS — ANOTHER VIEW. By E. C. G. PiNHEY. Mr. Townsend’s suggestions for common names for moths are admirable in many ways. If we lived here in a geographically confined space like Britain, or like Mauritius to come nearer our Region, I would say by all means use popular names for all our larger Lepidoptera, our so-called “Macrolepidoptera”. In our unconfined tropical zone, however, we have many thousands of moths which fall into the above category and having myself attempted to use common names for all the four hundred and sixty odd species of butterflies in Southern Rhodesia I have modified my views about extending such titles further. The lack of popularity with moths in Africa is not just due to the scientific names. In Europe, for instance, while British amateurs have strings of common names for moths, collectors on the Continent are not blessed to this extent with such encouragement. Yet there is no dearth of continental collections of moths. Again, there are many beetle collectors in Britain and although many of these (beetles) are of striking appear- ance only a few have popular names — more so in the case of groups than species. Who, for' example, would be so rash as to try and popularize the genus Apion with common names ? Attempts have been made in Engand to tack such names on to insects of other families without marked success. Even the amateur Lepidopterist in Britain must learn specific names if he is to mingle with older collectors or join societies, Nci, it would appear that the main cause of the lack of interest in African moths is the shortage of comprehensive, popular, well-illustrated literature. What are the reasons for this state affairs? Firstly the over- whelming number of species of moths (or other insects) in almost any African territory. Secondly the shortage of collectors and entomologists with spare time and sufficiently versed in the subject to wnhte books on them. Thirdly the cost of publication of well-illustrated works. * If the general opinion is in favour of popular names then they must, for practical reasons, be confined to the two most popular families of moths, Saturniidae and Sphingidae, both containing highly attractive insects and neither being overwhelming in number of species. To attempt names for other families, such as' the thousands of Agrotidae (Noctuidael) would be like plunging into a morass, complicated enough as it is to the advanced student and beyond the pale for the beginner. * Mr. Pinhey is working on a general book on African entomology — '“An Introduction to the Study of African Insects.” Editor. 90 VOL. XXII AN EXPLANATION OF SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. A Glossary of scientific names, commonly found in East African Ornithological Nomenclature. By D. G. MacInnes, Ph.D., M.B.O.U. It is a common, though entirely erroneus belief, that the “latin”, or scientific names of birds and animals are invented, without rhyme or reason, by the experts, with the dual purpose of impressing and confusing the amateur. Moreover it is thought that one of the primary requirements of such names is that they should be long, complicated and unintelligible. The following notes and glossary are therefore put forward as an attempt to explain briefly the system employed, and to enable the amateur to understand some of the names which, at first sight, appear to be so in- comprehensible. Colloquial names vary not only in different countries, but also from district to district, and it was partly owing to the resulting confusion that the great Swedish naturalist Linne (Linnaeus) devised a method, publish- ed in the 10th edition of his “Systema Naturae” in 1758, by which the entire Animal Kingdom was classified and divided into groups, or species, each of which was given two scientific names. In order that they should be of international value, Latin or Greek names were used. The first, or generic name, indicated a relationship within a group of species, whilst the second, or specfic name, distinguished the related species from one another. Thus the Mistle-Thrush, Song-Thrush, Fieldfare, Redwing, Blackbird etc., being clearly allied species, all have the first name Turdus, which is the Latin word meaning a Thrush. Occasionally, as in this case, the generic name is just the Latin or Greek word for the group, but more often names are composite words drawing: attention to some characteristic feature of the species (e.g. Turdus viscivorus = Mistletoe-eating Thrush = Mistle-Thrush), In the days of Linnaeus, ornithology was not the highly developed science that it is today, and although the original classification is largely maintained, it has been necessary to subdivide some genera into sub- genera, and many species into sub-species or races. For this reason a trinomial system of nomenclature has been introduced, and in addition to the generic and specific names, many birds have been given a third name, known as the subspecific- or racial-name. The subspecies is usually distinguished on geographical grounds, coupled with some recognisable variation in colour or form, and the third name thus often indicates the locality, consisting of a place-name wth the latin suffix — i, — ae or — ensis. Where a species has been divided into two or more subspecies, the one originallj" described is known as the “nomino-typical” race, and the third name is then merely a repetition of the specific name. February, 1954. An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. 91 For instance, in 1823 Lichtenstein described the Cape Rook under the name Corvus capensis. In 1919, Laubmann pointed out that in the province of Kordofan a smaller form occured, which he named Corvus capensis kordofanensis. Thus the original South African race becomes Corvus capensis capensis Licht. The ornithologist who “invents’’ a name to describe a new race or species, is known as the “author” of the name, and when referring to a bird by its scientific name it is customary to add the name of the author. Many bird-names date back to Linnaeus or other early ornithologists, and in some cases subsequent research has shown that a group of species originally assigned to a single genus, really represents two or more genera, which must be named separately. In this case the name of the first author is put in brackets, to indicate that the name now employed is not exactly as originally proposed. For example, Linnaeus included the Rock-Thrush with all the other Thrushes, and called it Turdus saxatilis, but in 1822 Boie showed that it was generically distinct, and proposed the new generic name Monticcla. The name therefore is now Monticola saxatilis (Linn). In this case, since no subspecies have been described, it is unnecessary to duplicate the second name. All too frequently authors have followed the line of least resistance, and have named species after the individual (human) who first collected or recognised it. Occasionally there may be some justification for such a course, but descriptive names are generally preferable, and, on the whole, more usual. In such a system of nomenclature, duplication of names is clearly to be avoided except within a single species, although some specific names may recur in several different genera. The Greeks and Romans did not have separate names for all the different genera that are recognised today, and it becomes increasingly difficult for the expert to find suitable names to define new genera. In addition to the direct use of the appro- priate Latin or Greek words such as Aquila (Eagle), Torgos (Vulture) etc., or the composite descriptive words such as Erythropygia (Red-rump) or Macronyx (Long-claw), many generic names have been derived from other sources. Some have been compounded from pre-existing genera, giving rise to such names as Butastur {Buteo + Astur) and Circaetus (Circus + Aetus) : others bring in a pre-existing name, with a prefix or suffix to denote a certain similarity, hence Alaemon (a kind of Lark) : Pseuda- laemon {false- Alaemon), or Crex (Corn-crake): Crecopsis (Crake-like), whilst others again make use of a diminutive (Calandra — Calandrella : Psittacus — Psittacula). Many names are descriptive of habits, both real and immaginary (Campephaga = Caterpillar-eater : Caprimulgus = Goat-sucker), or of habitat (Actitis = Shore-dweller ; Schoenicola = Reed-dweller) : place-names may also be used, in a latinised form (Balearica, Terekia, Ruwenzorornis, etc.), and occasionally proper names are employed, for example Sheppardia, Smithornis and others. 92 An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. VOL. XXII Perhaps the most interesting names are those derived from the fascina- ting legends of Greek mythology. Pandion, king of Athens, gives his nam.e to the Osprey, and the name of his daughter Procne, who was transformed into a Swallow, is perpetuated in several Hirundine genera. Pandion’s second daughter Philomela (Song-lover), had her tongue cut out by her wicked brother-in-law Tereus, to serve some evil purpose of his own, but the gods made up for it by transforming her into a Nightingale. Halcyon, daughter of the wind-god Aeolus, married Lucifer’s son Ceyx, who was subsequently drowned at sea. Awaiting his return on the shore. Halcyon saw his body drifting on the tide, and after appealing to the Gods, both she and her husband’s spirit were transformed into Kingfishers and granted immortality. Most of us acquired, at school, at least a smattering of the classics, and bearing in mind that most scientific names are simple or composite Latin or Greek words with a perfectly ratonal meaning, we begin to realise that they give no cause for alarm, but are, indeed, highly instructive and often entertaining. The following glossary defines, perhaps somewhat loosely at times, the meaning and derivation of the majority of the composite names commonly found in East African Ornithology. Space does not allow for a complete list, and some names have been deliberately omitted, either because their meaning should be obvious, or because the derivation is obscure, but by breaking up a doubtful name into its component parts and looking them up separately, it should be possible to elucidate it with- out difficulty. If in doubt about the construction, look up the first three or four letters, and the rest follows. It must be admitted that there are some gaps which can only be attributed to the author’s abysmal ignorance of the classics, but it is hoped that these notes may serve to diminish that sense of awe and frustration which the sight of a complicated scien- tific name so often inspires in us. Glossary of Scientific names and name-roots. L = Latin. G — Greek = ; a composite name a — , an — G without afer. afr — L african. acantha G thorn; spine. affinis L related. Accipiter L Hawk. agap — G love. acer L sharp. agr — L field. acredula L k'nd of bird. alar L of the wing. aero — G top; summit. albi — , albo — L white. act — G shore. albicauda = white-tailed. acuta L sharp. albiceps — ,, headed. aeginthis G sparrow. albicollis = „ necked. aeneus L brassy. albicrissalis „ bellied. acneigularis = brazen-throated. albifrons = „ fronted. aeruginosus L rusty. albigularis ., throated. aetho — G unusual. albirostris = ,, bellied. Aetus G Eagle. albiventris — ,, bellied. February, 1954. An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. albonotatus =; white-spotted. arete L narrow. Alcedo L Kingfisher. arcticincta — narrow-banded. alius L another. arcuatus (arqu-' L bowed; curved. alopo — G fox Ardea L Heron. als — G woodland. ardens burning. amaur — G dark. ardesiacus L, slate-grey. amauroura = dark-tailed. argaleo — G difficult. ambi — , amp'hi- - LG both. argent-atus, ambigua L doubtful. — eus L silvery. amblio — G blunt; stupid. aridula L of the desert. ana — • G similar to; like.. arizelo — • G distinct. andro G man. armatus L armed. angusti — L narrow. arundinaceus L of the reeds. angusticauda = slender-tailed. Astur L Hawk. anomalo — G uneven; unusual. atimast — G neglected. anous G stupid. atri — ■ L, black. anthos G flower. atricapilla = black-haired. apalo — G soft. atriceps ,, headed. apatellus G illusory. atrifrons — ,, fronted. apis L bee. atrocaerulea = black-blue. apiaster = bee-eater. aureus L golden. apivorus bee-eating. aurantiigula = golden-throated apl — ■ f ; simple. australis L of the south. arbor L tree. axilla L arm-pit. badius L brown; chestnut. B brachyurus short-tailed. — baenus G climber. brady — G slow. baeo — G small. brevis L short. balaena L whale. brevirostris short-billed. balaeniceps = whale-headed. brunnei — 1 , brown. barbat-us, — ula L bearded. brunneiceps — brown-headed. — bates G dweller. brunneigularis = ,, throated. bathmo — G graduated. brychus G roar; bellow, b' — , bis L twice. bu G ox. bifasciatus = two-banded. bubal G buffalo. binotata = two-spotted. Bubo L Horned Owl. borealis L of the north. bubul L of cattle. braccae L breeches. buccal L of the cheek. brachium L arm. buccina L trumpet. brachy — = short ta'led. buc(c)inator L trumpeter. brac'hyptera = short-winged. Budytes G Wagtail. brachyrhynchos = „ b'lled. Buteo L Hawk. C caeruleus L blue; violet. caniceps = grey headed. caesia L grey. canicollis = ., necked. cafer L of Kafirland. cantans L singing. calam — G of reeds. cap ell a L goat (bleater) calandrella G dim : of Calandra, capillus L hair. Lark, capistratus L banded. calva L smooth; bare. capra, capri— L goat. campe G caterpillar. caput, capit — L head. campestris L of the plains. carunculata L wattled. campt— G shoulder. casm — G open mouth. cani — ■ L grey. castaneus L chestnut. VOL. XXII 94 An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. castaneiceps chestnut-headed. citriniceps = yellow-headed. cauda ! tail. clarus L clear. centr — G spine; spur. climaco — G barred. cephal-o, — us G head. climacurus = barred-tail. ceps L head. clypeata L shielded. ceras G horn. clyto — G glorious. cercus G tail. cneme, ( — us) G knee. cex’ia G chest. cocc — G grain; berry. certhios G small-bird. Coccyx G Cuckoo. cervix L neck. — cola G dweller. cervinus L tawny. collis L neck. Ceryle G Kingfisher. collaris L collared. ceuth — G hidden. concinnus L neat; pretty. Ceyx G Kingfisher. concolor L of one colour. chalco — G copper; bronze. contra L opposite. chalcomelas = bronze-black. conus G cone; forehead. chalcomitra = bronze-crowned. conirostris = cone-billed. chalcopterus = „ winged. Corax L Raven; Crow. clxalcospilos = „ spotted. corona L of the crown. chalybaeus G steel-coloured. corruscus L wrinkled. charadr — L of cleft; gully. cor3^-s, — th G helmet; crest. charit — G graceful. cosm-o, — eto G adorned. charmosyna G agreeable. cossyphos G singing bird. cheilos G lip. costa L rib. chel G cloven; forked. coxa L hip. chelidOD G swallow. craspedo — G bordered. Chen G Goose. crassi — G thick. chlamys G cloak; mantle. crassirostris = thick-billed. chlidon G ornament. creas G flesh; wattle. chloro — G yellow-green. Crex G Crake. chlorochlamys green-mantled. cricos G ring. chori — ( ; dancing. crinis L hair. chroma G colour. crissa — L belly; flanks. chryso — G golden. crista L crest. cichla G kind of thrush. croc-atus, — eus L saffron-yellow. Ciconia L Stork. cruentus L bloody; red. cilium L eyelid. crumen L pouch; bag. cinclos G kind of bird; crura L legs. lattice. crypto — G hidden; secret. cinctus L banded. cryptoleuca hidden-white. cinerea L grey. cucull-us, — atus [ , hood, hooded. cinereiceps grey-headed. culmen L summit. cinereocapilla „ haired. cuma G wave. cinereola ! , ashy. cun — ( — ae) L cradle. cinnamomea L cinnamon. cupreus L copper. cinnyns G small-bird. cyano — G blue. Circus G Harrier (hawk that cyanocephalus = blue-headed. flies in circles). cyanogenys blue-cheeked. cirrhos G tawny; grey. cyanolaema = blue-throated. cirrhocephalus grey-headed. cyanoleuca = blue-white. cist — f ; shrub. cyanostictus = blue-spotted. citrin — L lemon-yellow. cypselos G martin; swift. D dactyla G toe. dendro — G tree. dasy — G hairy. dens, dentate L tooth; toothed.. decipiens L deceptive. derma G skin. i February, 1954. An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. 95 di— G diaphor — G dicro — G dilutior L dimidiatus L dioptr — G diplo — ■ G dipn — G diss G e — , ex — - L ecaudatus — ecto — G edulis L elachior G Elanus G elos G Emberiza L empid G endo — ento — G — ensis L ephippio — G epi — - G eranos G eremo — G erism'a G erithacus G falcin-ellus L famosa L fascia ( — tus) L fasciinucha = fasciiventer = ficus L flammulatus L flava L flavicrissalis = flavigaster flavigula = flavilateralis flavirostris flavitarsus flaviventris twice. different. forked. weak. half; halved. scout. double. food. double. without; lacking. tail-less. outside. edible. small. Kite. marsh frequenter. Bunting. gnat. within. from (place). saddle. upon. lovely. solitary; gentle. prop. solitary. sickle (dimin). renowned, band, banded, banded-nape, banded-belly, fig (tree), flame-coloured, yellow. yellow-flanked. ,, bellied. ,, throated. „ flanked. ., billed. ,, legged. „ bellied. dont dorsal dorsostriatus drepano — drepanorhynchus drymo — dryo — dusa E Erodios erythros erythrocephalus erythroceria erythrogaster erythrophthalma erythrops erythropygia erythrorhyncha — estes. eu — euro — . eurys euricricotis eurocephalus excubitor eximia exustus F flavivertex flavocincta flavotorquata fluviatilis fren-atus, — um fringilla frons fulg-ens, — idus Fulica fuliginosa fulva fulvopectoralis funebrea fuscus fusconota G tooth. L of the back. =- stripe-backed. G sickle-shaped. = sickle-billed. G forest. G tree. G of the sunset. G Heron. G red. = red-headed. = ,, chested. = „ bellied. = ,, eyed, r— ,, faced. = ,, rumped. = „ billed. L eater. G straight; true. G wide; eastern. = wide-ringed. = wide-headed. L sentinel. L distinguished. L of the desert. = yellow-crowned. = „ banded. = ,, collared. L of the river. L bridled. L finch. L forehead. L shining. L Coot. L sooty. I. yellow-brown. = fulvous-breasted. L dusky; dark. L dark. = dark-backed. G galactos. G of milk. gibber L hump. gal-eo, — er — L helmeted; crested. glareola L of gravel. gaster G stomach; belly. gluteal G of the buttocks gelo — G laughing. gnathos G jaw. gena L cheek. gracilis L slender. genys G jaw; cheek. gracilirostris = slender-billed. geo— G of the earth. graculus L jackdaw. geranus G crane. griseus L grey. 96 An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. Vol. xxii griseigula = grey-throated. gymno — G bare; naked. griseopygia = „ rumped. gymnobucco bare-cheeked. gular L of the throat. gymnogenys „ cheeked. gutt-ata, — ’era L speckled. Gyps O Vulture. H haema G blood; red. hippolais L singing-bird. 'haematocephala = red-headed. hirsutus L hairy. hal — G of the sea. hispid L bristly. hamatus L hooked. holo — G whole. haplo — G simple. homo — G similar. harp — G sickle; Kite. hoplon G weapon. hedy G sweet. horus L sun (Anc. Egypt). helios G sun. humeral L of the s'houlder. 'helo — G marsh-frequenter. hydro — G water. hemi — G half. hyla G wood; copse. Herodios G Heron. hyper — G above. hetero — G different. hyphantes G weaver. hi at — L cleft. hypo— G underneath. hieros G sacred. hypochlora = yellow-underparts. hierax G falcon; hawk. 'nypostictus = spotted „ himant — G leather strap. hypoxanthus — yellow „ ianthinus L violet. I infuscatus L dark-coloured. iant'hinogaster = violet-bellied. ingens L large. icter G yellow; (Oriole). insignis L marked. Ictinos G Kite. intercedens L coming between. igneus L fiery. interpres L go-between. igneiventris = fiery-bellied. iolaema G rusty-throated. ilio — L of the flanks. irrisor L mocker; mimic. illas, illad — G kind of thrush irroratus L mottled. imberbis L beardless. isabeline greyish-yellow. indicator L guide. — ius G of; dweller. infulatus L banded. ixos G berry; reed. j uncus L of rushes. . J Jynx G Wryneck. labium L lip. L leuco — G white. laema G throat. leucogaster =z white-bellied. laetus L joyful. leucolophus = ,, crested. lais G kind of thrush. leucomela white & black. lamella L small plate. leucomystax = „ moustached. lampr — G shining. leuconotus. ,, backed. lanius L butcher. leucoparaeus = „ cheeked. lateralis L of the flanks. leucophrys = ,, browed. lati — . — us L broad. leucoptera „ winged. latifrons — broad-fronted. leucopygia „ rumped. latistriatus. = „ striped. leucorhynchus = ,, billed. lepid-a, — us L neat. leucotis = „ eared. lepldo — G scaly. limno — • G of marsh or pone lepto — G slender. linea L line. lestes G robber. lingua L. tongue. February, 1954. An Explanatioji of Scientific Nomenclature. 97 lio — , liss — G smooth. lucidus L bright. lithos G stone. lucidipectus = bright-breasted. littoraU-S L of the shore. lugens L in mourning. longipennis = long-winged. lugubris L mournful; dark. longirostris = ,, billed. Luscinia L Nig'htingale. lopho — G crested. luteus L orange-yellow. M machaer G dagger. melitta G bee. machus G battle. melittophagus = bee eater. macro — G large; long. melos G song. macroceras large-horned. melocichla singing-thrush. macroura long-tailed. mentalis. : . of the chin. maculata 1 , spotted. Merops L Bee-eater. maculicollis = spotted-neck. meso — G medium. mialaco — G soft. micro — ■ G small. malaconotus = soft-backed. m'.cror'nynchus = small-billed. marginatus L of the shore. Milvus L Kite. mega — G large; long. minus'culus L little. megar'hyncha = large-billed. mitra G head-dress; crown. melas G black. monach-a, — us G solitary. melamprosopus = black-masked. mono — L •alone; one. melanocephala = „ headed. montana L of the mountains. melanogaster = ,, bellied. morpha G shape; form. melanoleucus = black & white. Motacilla L Wagtail. melanonota = black-backed. mulg-us L milk; suck. melanops = black-faced. multi — G many. melanoptera ,, winged. musc-a, — i — L fly. melanorhynchus =z ,, billed. muso L banana. melanota ,, eared. myct— G fungus. melanoxanthus = black & yellow. myi ( — as) G fly. melis L honey. myrmecos G of ants. meliphilns honey-lover. mystax G moustache. naias I ; water-nymph. N nigricollis black-necked. nanus L dwarf. nigrifrons „ fronted. — nastes G occupant. nigripennis ,, winged. nasutus L long-nosed. nigriscapular'.s = „ shouldered. nautes G sailor. nigrodorsalis ,, backed. necros G corpse. nigrotemporalis = „ templed. nectar L 'honey. nigroventris = ,, bellied. nema G thread. nitens L coloured. neo— G new. nitidus L s'hinning. neso — G islander. nivea L snow. netta G duck. notatus L spotted. niger, nigri — L black. notum L back. nigricauda black-tailed. nuchal L of the nape. nigriceps ,, headed. nycti — ■ L of the night. occiput 1 back of head. o — odont G tooth. ochro — G yellow. oecetor G in'habitant. Ocnos G Bittern. oedos G swollen. ocular L of the eye. Oena G Dove. — odius G of; by the way. Oenanthe G Wheatear. An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. VOL. XXII onax G onych G ophthalma G ops G — opsis, — opius G orbito— L oreo G Orestes G ornis G pachy — G pachyrhyncha = pada G paludis L paludicola palustris 1 , pan — , pam — G pammelaina = para G par-aeus, — eia G parra L Parus L parva L pastor L pecten L pectus L pecuarius L ped L pedilo — G peli G Pelia G peltata L pennis L penth — G percnos G percnopterus = periss — G permista L. personata L perspicillata L petrosus L phaeo — G phaga, ( — us) G phalacro — G philo — G phoenico — G pholi — G phoneus G — phonus G phorm — G — phorus G Phoyx G — phrys G phylla G phyto — G picta L king. claw. of the eye. eye; face. appearance; — like, of the eye. mountain, mountaineer, bird. thick; fat. thick-billed, tree, mars'h. marsh-dweller. marsh. all. ail black. besides. cheek. bird of ill-omen. Tit. small. herdsman. comb. chest. grazing. foot. sandal. black. Dove. with a shield, wing, sorrow, dark. dark-winged. uneven. mixed. marked. conspicuous. of stones. dark. eater. bald. loving. crimson; purple, scaly, m.urderer. voice. woven basket, bearer. kind of Heron, of the brow, green; leafy, of plants, painted. orthos Ortyx (ortygo--) ostrinus, Otis, otus Otis Otus ourus oxy — P pictipennis pileata pinar pirum platalea platy — plectes plectron plegadis pleura ploceus plumbeum pod podex, podic — poecilo — poecilolaemus poecilosterna pogon polem polio — poliocephalus poliolopha poliop'hrys poliopleura polioptera poliothorax pomast porphyreo — porphyreolaema prasina prion Procne, Progne proct — prosopu.= psalido — Psar (psarus) pseudo — Psittacus pternistes pter-on, — yx ptilos ptyon pulchra pumilus punctata G straight. G Quail. L purple. L ear. G Bustard. L Horned Owl. G tail. G sharp. = painted-wing. L capped. G dirty. L pear. L spoon. G flat. G plaiter; twister. G spur, G sickle. G flanks. G plaiter; weaver. L grey. G foot. L rump. G mottled. = mottled-throat. = „ breast. G beard. G war-like. G grey. r= grey-headed. = ,, crested. = „ browed. = „ flanked. = „ winged. = „ breasted. G lid; cover. G purple; russet. = purple-throated. L green. G jagged. G Swallow. G of the hind-parts. G face-mask. G shears. G Starling. G false. G Parrot. G one who strikes with the heel. G wing; feather. G feather; wing. G fan. L beautiful. L dwarf. L spotted. February, 1954. An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclatwe. 99 purpureus L purpureiceps purpureiventris = purpuropterus pus ( ; pusillus L quad — L rallus L recurv — L rhamph-us G rhino — G rhipis G — rhis G rhodo — G rhodogaster rhodopareia rhodophoneus -- rhynchos G riparla L roseus L roseicrissa = rostrum L ruber L sagitta L salp-inctes G sarki — G sarothron G saxa, (saxatilis) L scapularis L schistaceus G schizo — G sc'hoeno — G scirpaceus L sclero — G scopt — G scopus G scoto — G scute L sei — - G seicercus = semi — L semirufa semitorquata sibilatrix ! , silvanus L soma G sparsus L sparsimfasciatus speciosa : . purple. purple-headed. „ bellied. ,, winged, foot, small. four. Rail; thin. bent back or up. bc-ak. nose; rasp, fan. nose, rosy. rosy-bellied. ,, cheeked. ,, murderer, beak. frequenter of stream-banks, rosy. rosy-flanked. beak. red. arrow, trumpeter, flesh; wattle, broom. rock; of rocks, of the shoulders, slaty. cloven; forked. of reeds. of reeds. hard. mimic. watchman. dai’k. shield. shake. tail-s'haker. half. half-red. half-collared. whistler. of the trees. body. scattered. sparse-banded. handsome. pycnos pygargus pyg'-a pyren pyrrho — pyrrhopterus Q quadrivirgatus rubiginosa rubrifascies rudis rufi — , rufo — ruficapilla ruficollis rufidorsalis' rufigula rufinuchal'-s rufipenms rufiventris rufobuccalis rufocinctus rufocinerea rufocinnamomeus rufogularis rupestris s speculum sperm spheno — sp'henurus spilo — spilogaster spiza splendens spora squamatus’ Squatarola stagnatilis stegano — steira stelgid — Stella steno— stephano — stephanophorus sternum stictus stictilaema stigmato — stigmatophorus stigmatothorax G strong. G white-rumped. G rump; tail. G fruit-stone. G bronzy; reddish. = bronze-winged. = four-striped. L rusty-red. L red-faced. L wild. L red. — red-haired. ,, necked. — ,, backed. = ,, throated. = ,, naped. = „ winged. ,, bellied. red-cheeked. = ,, banded. = red & gx’ey. red & cinnamon red-throated. : , of rocks. L mirror. G seed. G wedge; bill. = wedge-tailed. G spotted. = spotted-belly. G finch. L shining. G seed. L scaly. L Black-bellied Plover. G of pools. G covered; webbed. G keel; wattle. G scraper. L star. G narrow. G of the crown. = crown-bearer. G chest. G spotted. = spotted-throat. G spotted. = spot-bearer. = spotted chest. 100 An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. Vol. xxii stilbo — G shining. striolatus L striped. stiphros G sturdy. Strix G Owl. stoma G mouth. Strut'hio L Ostrich. strephus G twister. sub — L under; below. strepitans L noisey. sulphuratus L sulphur-yellow. strepto — G pliant. supercilium L eyebrow. striatus L striped. sycobius G of fig-trees. striatipectus - stripe-breasted. Sylvia L of the woods. tachy — G swift. T tigr — G striped. taenia G band. tinniens L tinkling. taeniolaema banded-throat. tmet — G dividing. tarsus ( ; leg; foot. Torgos G Vulture. tegmen L cover. torquata L collared. tel — G at the end. trachelos G neck. tenellus L tender. trachy — G rough. tenui — L slender. tri— L three. tenuirostris slender-billed. tricho — G hairy. tephro — ( ; ashy-grey. tricollaris = three-collared. tephrolaema grey-throated. tricolor = „ coloured. tergum [ , back. trigon G triangle. testa L shell. Tringa G Sandpiper. thalassa G sea. tristigma three-spotted. thamno — G of shrubs. tristriata ,, striped. theio — G run. trocho — ( : wheel; round: — t'hera G hunter. troglodytes G cave-dwellers. thorax G chest. trogon G gnawer. — threptes G nourished. Turnix L Quail. threski — G sacred. tympanum L drum. thrix G hair. Tyto G Owl. thylax G bag; pouch. U undosus L wavy. unicolor = one-coloured. uni — L one. Upupa L Hoopoe. unicincta = one-banded. — urus G tail. venter L belly. V vinaceigularis purple-throated. venustus L pretty. virens L green. vermis L worm. virgatus L striped. vermiculate = fine wavy lines. viridis L green. vertex L crown. viridisplendens shining-green. verticalis L of the crown. vitelline 1 . yolk-like; yellow, versicolor L parti-coloured. vittatus L banded. vidua L widowed. — vorus L eater. vinaceus L wine-like. xanthos G yellow. X xanthomelas - yellow & black. xantholophus = yellow-crested. xanthophilus = yellow-loving. February, 1954. An Explanation of Scientific Nomenclature. 101 zona zonurus Z G band. zoster G band; girdle. = banded-tail. zosterops = banded-eye. References. Henderson, I.F. & W.D. 1949. A Dictionary of Scientific Terms. 4th Edition, by Kenneth, J.H. Jaeger, E-C. 1950. A Source-Book of Biological Names and Terms. 2nd Edition. 102 VOL. XXII NOTES ON THE ALOES OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA AND SOMALIA. By Dr. G. W. Reynolds. The Coryndon Museum Expedition to Southern Ethiopia and Somalia was organised to facilitate the investigation of Euphorbia, Monadenium, succulents, and general botanical collecting by Mr. P. R. O. Bally, and for the investigation and study of the genus Aloe by myself. Mr. A. Money- Kyrle accompanied us on Quelea and other research. The species of Aloe recorded from Southern Ethiopia and Somalia had been imperfectly described, type material was scanty and incomplete, and there were no figures. Until I could visit type localities and study plants on the spot, I had little hope of ever being able to recognise or identify those species. My special interest therefore, was to visit those type localities, try and establish identities, write up full descriptions, secure photographs, and prepare herbarium material. In a short article such as this, notes must of necessity be very brief and sketchy, but descriptions of new species and full notes on identities, etc., with photographs, will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of South African Botany. The first part of our travels took us northwards to Isiolo, thence to Wajir and Moyale on the Ethiopian border. The termitaria north of Wajir were impressive, some of them being 6-9 feet broad at the base, and reaching 15 feet in height. (Fig. 1). In Ethiopia we visited Mega and Yavello, while I went alone up to Agere Mariam. It was a surprise to find that Aloe secundiflora Engler (plentiful near the Athi River road bridge, 23 miles S.E. of Nairobi — where plants llower in April-May) occurred in numbers near Moyale and repeatedly along the road to Mega and up to Yavello, west of Yavello, but not seen east of Yavello on the road to the Daua Parma River (Fig. 2). A distinctive new species with deeply channelled much recurved leaves, a paniculate inflorescence with dense racemes of clavate orange flowers was found in considerable quantities on arid plains 48 miles N.W. of Moyale (Fig. 3) and also north of Mega and Yavello. It was also noticed 14 miles south of Buna in Kenya. Many Aloes, found in full flower at Mega turned out to be A. Rivae Bak. (Fig. 4). This species also extends northwards to Yavello and beyond. A. horanensis Cufod. had been described from “near Dubuluch, coming from Yavello”, but certain plants found in that region, (about 26 miles north of Mega), which fitted the description, turned out to be crosses between A. secundiflora and what I believe is A. otallensis var. elongata. Yavello proved a most interesting place. Another new species of Aloe was found there, a shrub, related to the East African shrubby Aloes, but Fig. 1. Termite mound, north of Wajir, Northern Proihnce, Kenya. Fig. 2. Aloe secundiflora Engler 16 miles N.W. of Moyale, Borana, S. Ethiopia, Fig. 3. Aloe new sp. 48 miles N.W. of Moyale, Borana, S. Ethiopia. Fig. 4. Aloe Rivae Bak. flowering at Mega, Borana, S. Ethiopia. / Fig- 5. Termite chimney at Yavello, Borana, S. Ethiopia. Fig. 6. Aloe microdonta Chiov. 20 miles S. of Bulo Burti, Somalia. February, 1954. Aloes of Southern Ethiopia & Somalia. 103 differing from them all in having copper-brown leaves, cylindric spotted flowers only 27mm. long, with 10mm. pedicels. At Yavello Mr. Money-Kyrle secured about ten specimens of the rare bird Zavattariornis stresemanni, a species of crow, black, grey and white in plumage with leaden-blue bare skin around the eyes. Mr. John William:s tells me this rare bird is known only from the Yavello district and provides the link between the crows and the starlings. Yavello is also famous for its great turritiform termitaria, reported to occur only in that region. I photographed one slender lofty specimen which was over 25 feet high (Fig. 5). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Yavello is a small circular building surrounded by a stockade of poles. The sloping roof is crowned with a horse-shoe shaped arrangement of wire threaded through eight or ten ostrich-egg shells, each shell being about one foot apart. One Ethiopian told me that the egg shells were merely ornaments; another said they were placed there to keep the devil away. From Yavello the road leads eastwards, sloping gently down to the Daua Parma River, then it climbs up to Neghelli. Mr. Bally was overjoyed at finding a Monadenium, which might be M. majus described from Harar. Masses of plants were found, in full bloom, for 20 to 30 miles south of Neghelli, in country where no Aloe was found. From Neghelli south- eastwards to Dolo is not Aloe country, but Mr. Bally found much in the way of Euphorbia to interest him. Near the Ganale Doria River in Ethiopia we ran across some baboons,, the like of which I had never seen or heard of before. They had long shaggy hair around the shoulders, while the lower half of the body and hindquarters was flesh-coloured and devoid of hair. I don’t know their: name, but a good vernacular name for them would be the “Fur-cape baboon.” (Probably Hamadryas — B.V.) From Dolo we followed the road southwards to Lugh Ferrandi, thence to Iscia Baidoa where large quantities of the most attractive Adenium somalense were in full bloom. Some plants were 8-10 feet high, their clusters of brilliant deep red flowers decorating and enlivening an other- wise drab landscape. Bardera, on the Juba River, was reached, and we headed southwards for Gelib and Margherita. This was an important area for me since it con- tained a few Aloe type localities. A. microdonta Chiov. was recognised at last. It is distinguished by having deeply channelled much recurved leaves, with a paniculate inflorescence with oblique to almost horizontal branches- of laxly flowered racemes with secund red flowers. A. Ruspoliana Bak. (type locality Mil Mil in the Ogaden) was also found in numbers and it eventually transpired that this species and A. Jex-Blakeae from the Horr Valley, Kenya, are conspecific. 104 Aloes of Southern Ethiopia & Somalia. VOL. XXII A. Stefaninii Chiov. is merely a form of A. Ruspoliana, while A. defalcata Chiov. proved to be a mixture of species, the channelled recurved leaves of A. microdonta having been mixed with the capitate yellow-flowered racemes of A. Ruspoliana. A. Pirottae Berger was found in several localities and so was A. tricho- santha Berger var. alho-picta Schweinf. A. Ellenbeckii Berger, described from along the Juba River south of Bardera, and as having flowers allied to those of the East African species A. lateritia, in the Section Saponariae, was not found anywhere. From what I have seen of the vegetation of the Juba River I doubt very much whether any Aloe sp. allied to A. lateritia, is to be found in those regions. The tree. Euphorbia Robecchi, is common in parts of the coastal area, and is used at the saw mill near Kismayu for making slats for crating bananas for export to Italy. Queleas are also giving the Italian agronomists much trouble in the irri- gated lands along the Juba River near Gelib and Margherita, so much so that cereals can no longer be grown. One Italian told us that in 1946 he had 1,000 acres under rice. Then the Queleas came in flocks of millions, darkening the sun, and wiped out his entire crop in two days. He fired his shot-gun into the air, and with that one shot brought down no less than 634 birds. It is now clear that unless some scheme of Pan-African control is organised, and that soon, on lines similar to those of the Desert Locust Control, nothing less than a major disaster will overtake Africa’s cereal cultivation, to say nothing of some of the grasses. From Kismayu we journeyed up to Mogadishu, finding numbers of A. microdonta, and lesser quantities of A. Ruspoliana on the way. Caralluma somalica, with its dense heads of yellow flowers, was seen near Merca, not far from the sea. We had hoped to press on to Hargeisa in Somaliland Protectorate, but got no further than Bulo Burti, 135 miles north of Mogadishu. Here, with broken springs, the rains imminent, and threatened with the real danger of being bogged down and cut off, we reluctantly decided to follow the dictates of wisdom, and turn back. Returning to Kismayu and travelling via Beles Cogani and Liboi, we reached Garissa and Nairobi only one day before the rains came, and the closing of some coastal roads. Our expedition had covered 3,750 miles, and I returned to Johannesburg, filled with gratitude that my investigations had been blessed with every success. I am indebted to the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, for a travelling grant which made possible my Aloe investiga- tions in Ethiopia and Somalia. February, 1954. TREE-EUPHORBIAS AS TIMBER TREES By P. R. O. Bally. 105 Tree-Euphorbias or “Candelabrum Trees” which are so characteristic of the tropical African scenery are generally considered to be of no economic value. It is true that native tribes have a number of uses for them. The dried branches were used for carrying fire, for, once set alight, they continue to smoulder for many hours. The Kikuyu use the pith of the candelabrum tree as a roborant and fattening cure for old men. The latex of many of them, diluted in water, serves for a purge for cattle and man, but it is not without danger, for it is used also in the preparation of arrow poison and for killing fish. In parts of Central Tanganyika, the straight, light stems of a tree Euphorbia make rafters for native huts. The outer portions of the branches of Euphorbia contain large quantities of latex contained in long, branched latex tubes which are distributed all over the plant. The latex contains starch grains, amorphous resin, mucil- age, mineral salts, a virulous resinous substance called euphorbon, and rubber. The dried latex of certain species has for centuries been used as an ener- getic rubeficient or blister, but nowadays its use is restricted to veterinary practice. During World War II, when, with the Japanese invasion of the Far East, plantation rubber had become scarce, the latex of many South and Tropical African tree-Euphorbias was analysed for its rubber content, as a possible substitute, but none of them contained rubber in sufficient quantities, be- sides there were technical difficulties in separating the rubber from the other constituents of the latex. There are, however, two species of tree-Euphorbias which are of consid- erable economic importance : in Eritrea, a country much eroded and with very poor rainfall, there occurs Euphorbia abyssinica (Fig. 1) in vast num- bers. It grows to a height of 40 ft. and more, with a clean bole of consider- able length and diameter. The Italians soon found that the wood with its soft, parallel fibre is particularly well suited for the manufacture of matches. When dry, it burns easily and evenly. A large factory in Asmara produces matches not only for local consumption, but also for export. The boxes, too, are made from the same timber (fig. 2). From the shavings, sawdust and other waste which are pulped and treated in a special plant, a strong brown paper is made. Unfortunately the growth of E. abyssinica is very slow indeed, nor has any effort been made to regenerate the cut-out stands of the tree, and it is only a matter of time before supplies of this timber will be exhausted. 106 Tree Euphorbias as Timber Trees VOL. XXII In the coastal regions of Somalia — semi-desert country except along the Juba River and along the Webi Shebelli, — the tall Euphorbia robecchii Pax (Fig. 3) abounds and dominates the otherwise stunted xerophytic tree growth. From its soft, odourless timber, the crates for shipping the bananas from huge plantations run by the Italians along the banks of the two rivers^ are made. E. robecchi has a particularly acrid and obnoxious latex which — even in the minutest quantities — causes virulent inflammation of the mucous membranes and a drop of which raises blisters on the skin. Before the tree is cut, a fire is built around the base which scorches the bark and destroys the latex. The trees are then felled, the branches chop- ped off and left behind to be used for singing the latex of other trees. The logs are then taken by lorry to the sawmill in Chisimaio (Fig. 4) whence the bananas are shipped to Italy, cut up into slats and made into frames for the crates (Fig. 5). The wood has to be used green, when it is tough and resilient. Once dry, it becomes brittle and looses most of its strength, so that the crates can be used for one single voyage only. Already, the timber has to travel many miles to the factory, the neigh- bourhood having been thoroughly cut out, but E. robecchi is exceedingly common over a great portion of British and Italian Somaliland, in the Northern Frontier Province of Kenya, it extends South into the Tsavo National Park and further South into Northern Tanganyika where the most Southernly limit seems to be near Mkomasi. Peter R. O. Bally, Botanist, Coryndon Museum, Nov. 1953. Photographs by the author. EXPLANATION OF FIGURES. (1) Euphorbia abyssinica Gmel. n’r Nefasit, Eritrea. (2) Euphorbia robecchii Pax n’r Maungu, Tsavo National Park. (3) logs of E. robecchii at the sawmill in Chisimaio. (4) frames for banana crates, stacked at the sawmill, Chisimaio. ^ OBITUARY ? Air-Vice Marshall Sir Robert Brooke=Popham j; The Society is grieved to hear of the death of Sir Robert Brooke- 'j' Popham, G.C.V.O., K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., A.F.C. During Sir Robert’s *:* stay in Kenya as Governor he was a Patron of the Society. Although ijl war broke out during his stay in the Colony with all its complications % and anxiety. Sir Robert was interested in the affairs and well-being ill of the Society. ;> H. Copley. Fig. 1. Euphorbia abyssinica Gmel. r- 5 L. Fig. 3. Making matcJi boxes from Euphorbia timber in Asmara, Fig. 4. Logs of Euphorbia rohecchii at Chisimaio Saiomill. Fig. 5. Crate-frames made from Euphorbia robecchii. ,W. February, 1954. 107 THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE SPOOR AND DUNG OF EAST AFRICAN MAMMALS. By Dr. P. R. Hesse PART I. THE ANTELOPES Introduction As the primary function of these articles is to illustrate the tracks and droppings of the more common mammals found in East Africa, only the briefest of notes on the animals will be given. They are designed to indicate the type of country in which to expect the tracks shown and whenever possible definite localities have been named. Neither the spoor nor the dung of every East African mammal has yet been encountered by the author and so the series of articles is by no means comprehensive. It must be remembered that although the spoor as illustrated shows the complete imprint of the foot, in practice a perfect track is seldom found. Moreover, the following points should be borne in mind when attempting to identify spoor ; — i. The hooves of antelope tend to splay out when the animal is run- ning. In these cases the marks of the hoof tips will be much deeper than usual and the rounded, back portion may not show at all. ii. The young animals of a large species often make tracks similar to those of mature animals of a smaller species. If such is the case however, the similar, but larger footprints of the adult female will almost certainly be found at the same time. iii. In many cases the imprint of the hind foot is slightly different to that of the forefoot. The dung of antelopes is frequently found not as separate pellets but as a compressed mass. Normally however, the characteristic shape of the pellets can still be seen. When young animals are present their smaller dung can cause the same confusion as their smaller spoor, until one comes across the larger droppings of the adult. Dikdik Rhynchotragus kirkii (Kiswahili: dikidiki, suguya) There are four races of dikdik found in East Africa generally dis- tributed in bush and dry country. As they have a habit of return- ing to the same place to deposit their droppings, the dung is found as heaps of small, black pellets. The spoor can easily be confused with that of the Blue Duiker. 108 Identification of Spoor & Dung of E.A. Mammals. Vol xxii Steinbok Raphicerus campestris (Kiswahili: paa, dondoro) These are of general distribution and are found in grassland or bush where they occur singly or in pairs. The dung is similar in appear- ance to that of a dikdik but rather smaller. Klipspringer Oreotragus oreotragus (Kiswahili : mbuzi mawe, ngurunguru) This antelope is found in mountainous and rocky country and con- sequently the spoor is but rarely seen, particularly as normally only the tips of the hooves touch the ground. It differs from that of the other small antelope by having broad, rounded tips. The klip- springer has been recorded from the Ngong Hills, Kedong Hills, the Naivasha ax’ea, Kilimanjaro, the Pai’e Hills, Moshi, Arusha, Tabora, Dodoma, Mbeya, Kigoma, Iringa, Mwanza and Musoma. Common Duiker Cephalophus grimmia (Kiswahili: paa, nsya) Generally distributed and found singly or in pairs, this duiker inhabits tall grassland, thin forest and bushland. Like the dikdik it returns to the same place to deposit its droppings which are very like those of the dikdik although without the pronounced “pear- shape” of the latter. Blue Duiker Cephalophus monticola (Kiswahili; paa) The Blue Duiker is found singly or in pairs in forest and thick bush. Once again the droppings are found in localised heaps. Red Duiker Cephalophus harveyi (Kiswahili: funo) This duiker is found in the bushland and forests of high localities such as the Aberdares, Usambaras and Kilimanjaro. Its spoor is much larger than that of the preceding duikers although of the same shape. Its dung similarly is much larger. Yellow-backed Duiker Cephalophus sylvicultor (Kiswahili; paa) This is the largest of the duikers and is found singly or in pairs in forest. It occurs in the Mau Forest. Its footprint compares both in size and shape with that of a bushbuck. No sample of its dung has yet been found. Oribi Ourehia ourehi (Kiswahili; taya) Usually found in couples or small parties in thin bush. Sometimes it is found in mountainous country such as the Mau district. Its dung is similar to that of the common duiker but is longer and thinner. Its spoor is similar to but much smaller than that of a hartebeest and apart from the type of country might be mistaken for that of a Thomson’s gazelle. Bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus (Kiswahili: pongo, mbwala) Found singly or in pairs the bushbuck is generally distributed in forest and bush. It is abundant near Lamu, the Mau district D! K - OIK sr e iNooK KLIf>SPf\INC£ft rCLLOw backcd duiker ORlBI RED DUIKEP, BUSHBUCK Plate 1. “Spoor and dung of E. African Antelopes." (natural size). Plate 2. “Spoor and dung of E. African Antelopes. (natural size). TT \ 7 ■.r\m >V 1 y/' t I r \ J 1 / ,f i A, I I ^ -■ f ? W ’ ifiiln I Cf^CATCfi KUOU Plate 3. “ Spoor and dung of E. African Antelopes. (half natural size). SABL£ ANT£LOP€ POAN ANTCL OPE ELAND »ILD£B€£%i Plate 4. “Spoor and dung of E. African Antelopesf* (half natural size). February, 1954. Identification of Spoor & Dung of E.A. Mammals. 109 Aberdares, Kikuyu, Ithanga Hills, Bukoba, Mwanza, Musoma and Kondoa. The droppings consist of small pellets which are usually found stuck together in an irregular mass. Thomson’s Gazella Gazella thomsonii (Kiswahili: lala, kinokera, swala tomi) These are widely distributed but found mainly in herds on the plains of Masailand. Their dung consists of surprisingly small pellets and is rather variable in shape as shown in the illustration. Grant’s Gazelle Gazella granti (Kiswahili: swala grant!) This gazelle is also widely distributed, usually found in herds on open plains but sometimes in Acacia bushland. Its spoor is similar in shape to that of the Thomson’s gazelle but is twice as large. Gerenuk Litocranius ivalleri (Kiswahili; swala twiga) These long-necked gazelle are found in small parties in Acacia bushland. They occur in the Magadi-Natron-Manyara part of the Rift Valley, the Tana River area, from Tsavo to Kilimanjaro, the Pare Mts., Kikore and the Umba steppe. No sample of their dung has yet been encountered. Impala Aepyceros melampus (Kiswahili: swala mwekundu, swala pala) These are found in herds all over East Africa except near the coast or in forests. The spoor approximates in size and shape to that of a Grant’s gazelle but its dung is thinner and without the “pear- shape” of the latter. Reedbuck Redunca arundinum (Kiswahili: tohe) Reedbuck are found in couples or small groups in reedy valleys, open grassland and thin forest. They are known to occur on the Athi Plains, along the Tana River, the Ithanga Hills and Buiko. The footprint is normally sharply pointed at the tip which helps to distinguish it from that of the Impala which often occurs in the same district. Waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus & K. defassa (Kiswahili : kulo, ndogoro) These antelope are found in herds, small groups or as a solitary bull in bush, forest and reeds. The two races become mixed in the Aberdares and Ngong district. Their droppings vary with the seasons, being hard and as illustrated in the dry season but soft and cattle-like during the wet season. Hai'tebeest Alcelaphus huselaphus (Kiswahili: kongoni) These are found in herds on the plains and in open bush; they are very common on the Athi Plains. The spoor is about the same size as that of the waterbuck but is much narrower at the tip. The dung is similar in shape to that of an eland but is considerably smaller. no Identification of Spoor & Dung of E.A. Mammals. Vol. xxii Greater Kudu Strepsicei'os strepsiceros (Kiswahili: tandala) Found singly or in pairs in bush and scrub country, the Kudu has been recorded from Marsabit, Mt. Rulat, Baringo, the country north of Elgon, along the Tana River, Kigoma, Tabora, Dodoma, Iringa, Mbeya, Mpwapa, Kondoa, Bagamoyo and Songea. In spite of its weight the kudu makes only a very slight track, its footprints being more narrow than those of the other large antelope. Its dung tends to be barrel-shaped. Lesser Kudu Strepsiceros imberhis (Kiswahili: tandala mdogo) The Lesser Kudu is found singly, in pairs or in small parties in thick bush and dry, stony country. It occurs in the Shimba Hills, at Lamu and at Nyeri. Its spoor is only half the size of that of the Greater Kudu and could be mistaken for the track of a Thomson’s gazelle. No sample of its dung has yet been found. Sable Antelope Hippotragus niger (Kiswahili: palahala) Found as a solitary bull or in herds in thin forest and bush, this antelope occurs in the coastal region of Kenya as far inland as Voi, at Lake Jipe, Kilosa, Geita, Songea, Tunduru and Kilumbi. The spoor is similar to that of a waterbuck but much larger and the dung resembles that of the hartebeest but with straight sides coming sharply to a point rather than gradually rounding off. Roan Antelope Hippotragus equinus (Kiswahili: korongo) This antelope is found as a solitary bull or in small parties in thorn bush and open forest. It has been recorded from the Mau district, the Uasin-Gishu Plateau, Tabora, Kigoma, Mbeya, Kondoa and Ufipa. Being heavy and hard treading, these animals usually leave well marked tracks which although about the same size as those of the Sable, are more broad and curved at the tips. The dung is similar in shape but nearly twice as big as that of the Sable. Eland Taurotragus oryx (Kiswahili: pofu) The Eland is found in herds in bush or open grassland. It is fairly common on the Athi Plains, Ithanga Hills, Guas Ngishu, Nyeri and Baringo. The spoor of this heavy antelope is deep and well defined except on hard ground. Being almost semi-circular at the tip, the footprint can be confused with that of a small buffalo. Blue Wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus (Kiswahili: nyumbu) Wildebeest are found in large herds on open plains. The spoor is usually well defined as the animal treads heavily. The dung consists of surprisingly small pellets which are however, normally found as fairlv large, compressed masses. February, 1954. Ill OBITUARY H. J. ALLEN TURNER Although Allen Turner only joined the permanent staff of the Coryndon Museum in 1941, he had been associated with the organisation of Museum Services in Nairobi from the very beginning. The first Museum in Kenya was a small building • — now pulled down — which stood near the present Kingsway Police Station. It was built for the East African Natural History Society in 1911, and was very small. Turner, who had only been in the country a few years prepared many of the first exhibits. From then on Turner collected for the Museum in all branches of its work, and again and again prepared exhibit specimens. When the second Museum, which is now the C.I.D. Headquarters, was built, he again co-operated in the preparation of the new Museum for opening, and added many more exhibits to it, while keeping so much in the background that few people realised the extent of his work. When the Coryndon Memorial Museum building was put up and the Society transferred its collections there in 1929 and gave up its other build- ing, Turner again played a big part in arranging the exhibits, and added to them on very numerous occasions, from that time onwards. As a field collector Turner was outstanding. His powers of observation and his knowledge of so many branches of Natural History so extensive, that again and again he was able to collect specimens new to science, which might otherwise have passed unnoticed for many more years. To him was due the discovery of the rare water porcupine in Nyanza Province, to him the honour of finding birds and insects new to science, to him we owe the discovery of not a few important prehistoric sites. In botany too- — although not a botanist — he was always on the lookout for new and rare plants, and found not a few that had previously escaped notice. As a museum technician Turner was especially skilled in plaster casting and his reproductions of fish and reptiles is unsurpassed. He also was excellent at making models from photographs and drawings, and his hand- made models of the first Coelocanthe and of various extinct fossil fishes have been, before now, mistaken for casts, when in fact they were merely created from photographs. With his passing Kenya has lost a man who did more for the advance- ment of its Natural History than any single other person. L. S. B. LEAKEY. On November 27th 1953 Henry J. Allen Turner passed away at the age of 77 years. Allen, as everybody knew him, was a dearly beloved charac- ter known throughout the Colony, and also to many naturalists outside 112 Obituaries. VOL. XXII Kenya. His general field knowledge was considerable, as he had collected for most of the great museums all over the world. Turner came to the Colony in 1909 as a taxidermist to Messrs. Newland and Tarleton, the Safari outfitters, in order to take charge of the trophies of the Roosevelt expedition which was led by the late Colonel Roosevelt and his son, Kermit Roosevelt. When Mr. Edmund Heller stayed on Turner accompanied him as collector and taxidermist, and the great collec- tion of East African specimens now in the Smithsonian Museum, Washing- ton, owes a tremendous lot to his care and skill. For many years Turner collected for many of the big museums, and he was renowned for the beautiful condition in which his specimens were despatched. It is not generally known that for several years he ran a nursery garden on the Kinangop, and introduced into Kenya many of the bulbs, flowering shrubs and fruit trees which we now take as a matter of course. His association with the Natural History Society dates back to its incep- tion; he was intimately bound up with its development and was one of its most loyal supporters. When the embi’yo museum started in 1911, Turner prepared the birds and mammals which formed the nucleus of the present collections of the Coryndon Museum. He saw and actively participated in the move to the original drill hall; then to the present Coryndon Memo- rial Museum; and finally in the crowning glory of the new extensions. It was a great day when he saw these halls opened to the public by His Excellency the Governor; and I know how deep were his feelings that he should live to see his hopes so worthily fulfilled. I remember that after the crowd had gone that evening, he and I were quietly walking through the new Churchill Hall and he turned to me and said ; “You and I never expected to see this day, but we have and I am content” : — a tribute to his beloved Museum. Turner’s real love was fishes, and his work in modelling these creatures was supreme. For those who follow him he has left the exhibits in the Churchill Hall as a lasting tribute to his artistic skill. To my mind, much of his work in modelling lizards — - and particularly frogs — cannot be equalled anywhere else in the world. From early days he sat in at the councils of the Natural History Society, and he was for many years a Vice-President. In the early years he was a great fighter for the preservation of the fauna and flora of the Colony, and never ceased to press forward the need for National Parks, in com- mittee, when on delegations to the Government, or in the Press. His satis- faction was deep when National Parks became a part and parcel of the Colony. Many a lady visitor to the Museum expressed the opinion that Turner was “a dear”, and that word thoroughly expressed his character. He was indeed “a dear”; but he was also a sturdy fighter if ever the future of his Natural History Society, his Museum, or his birds and animals were in danger. H. Copley. Allen Turner working on fish casts at the Coryndon Museum. February, 1954. Obituaries. 113 A PERSONAL APPRECIATION Natural History suffered a great loss on the death of Mr. H. J. Turner in November last and it is felt that a few personal reminiscences may be of interest to his many friends. My first acquaintance with Allen Turner started over 30 years ago. After leaving school I made a trip round Africa with my mother and stayed a considerable time in Nairobi. During that period some time was spent in assisting Dr. van Someren in the development of the first small Museum belonging to the Natural History Society situated near the Norfolk Hotel. One day a large man dressed in riding breeches and leggings with a wide hat and wearing not inconspicuous side whiskers called at the Museum. He asked me if I was interested in beetles. In reply I said that there were few forms of life for which I had a higher regard, and he expressed delight. He then produced several cartridge boxes containing a fine collection of beetles which he had made at Kakamega in 1915 and subsequently when doing war work on Lamu and Manda Islands. These insects were in ex- cellent condition and had been very carefully preserved. Allen Turner then said that he would like to give me this collection if I would take an interest in it and have them named and worked out. The collection was later taken by me to London and was returned to this country when I came here permanently to live in 1926. It is now in the Coryndon Museum col- lection. This was the beginning of our friendship and co-operation in the collection of Coleoptera which lasted until his death. At that time and for some later years, Allen Turner was employed by Sir John Ramsden and was for some time Manager of the Naivasha Cream*- ery. In 1932 when the so-called “Gold rush” occurred at Kakamega, Allen Turner, H. L. Geeson and myself went together to try our luck at this new venture. We duly pegged an area of land on one of the most attractive sights in an area situated on Kuhu Hill overlooking the Yala River. After a great deal of enthusiasm had been expended, our results were very simi- lar to the majority of prospectors. We saw no gold whatever but did not lose a great deal of money. After Geeson and I had returned to Nairobi to our normal occupations. Turner remained at Kakamega but needless to state the only acquisitions made were some very interesting insects new to the Museum collection. A year later the British Museum sent an expe- dition to collect on certain East African mountains and their first objective was the Aberdare range. We all stayed at Turner’s house which wes situated by the Naivasha Forest Station and we accompanied the expedi- tion during their trip over the mountains. It is an interesting fact that, although most of the members of the expedition were young men in their early twenties, Allen Turner who was then probably in his early sixties always led the way. This was by no means easy going as it rained almost continuously and the ascent of the Aberdare Mountains, although short, is, through the bamboo zone much steeper and much harder going than similar areas at the same altitude on Kenya and Kilimanjaro. 114 Obituaries. VOL. XXII After a year or two Allen Turner was given a job at the East African Pavilion which was opened at the Johannesburg Exhibition. This he en- joyed very much and I am sure added greatly to the interest of visitors by his stories of the early days in East Africa. A further important expedition which Allen Turner accompanied was one organised by the East African Natural History Society to the Chyulu Hills. Here the expedition stayed for five or six weeks, and conditions were not made more comfortable by the fact that all water had be carried some six or seven miles. Soon after the last war started in 1939, Allen Turner joined the perma- nent Staff of the Coryndon Museum as taxidermist and general preparator. Here he remained doing the work he loved until the last illness before his death. His work is well-known to many visitors by the beautiful coloured casts of fishes which are exhibited in the Fish Hall. Although Turner was a general field naturalist of high standing, in later years his greatest interest was m adding to the collection of insects and he always showed a particular affection for the Coleoptera. Many new species of beetles discovered by him have been named after him and it always gave him particular pleasure to see the large number of insects bearing the name “turneri” in the collection. Although his knowledge of entomo- logy was confined mainly to observation in the field, he had a wonderful eye for a “species” and often when out collecting he would remark on picking up an insect he felt this was something new either to Science or to the collection. He was a true Cockney by birth and was always a genial companion on safari, his unfailing sense of humour and kindly spirit were a continual joy to all those who had the pleasure of being with him on these occasions. After a long illness he died at the age of 77 and his loss to East African natural history is irreparable. A. F. J. GEDYE. February, 1954. 115 BOOK REVIEWS. THE BIRDS OF THE BELGIAN CONGO By James P. Chapin. Part III being Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Volume 75A. New York : 1953. pp. 821. The first part of Dr. Chapin’s work was published as American Museum of Natural History Bulletin Vol. 45 in 1932 and covered the families Os- triches to Button Quails inclusive. The second, Vol. 75 of the Bulletin series, appeared in 1939. It dealt with the remainder of the Non-passerines, ending with the Woodpeckers. The third, the present part, has occupied Dr. Chapin for 15 years, subject to wartime interruptions. It comprises the Passerine families of the Pittas and Broadbills, Larks, Wagtails and Pipits, Bulbuls, Cuckoo-shrikes, Babblers, Warblers, Thrushes, Flycatchers and Swallows. The remaining Passerines will be dealt with in Part 4, which will appear as No. 75B of the Bulletin in 1954. The reviewer is impelled to say at the outset that he is quite sure all interested in African oimithology, indeed bird-lovers everywhere, will wish the author health and strength to complete this great work with his own hand. The plan of Part 3 adheres to that of previous volumes. Each family is prefaced by a key to the genera which the family comprises. Then each bird, be it race or monotypic species, is dealt with in a separate article. Where a bird has not yet been recorded for the Congo, but probably does occur there, it is given a short article but under an italicised heading in square brackets. Keys to the species, and occasionally to races, precede the treatment of the forms to which they relate. There are 14 plates of photographs at the end of the book before the index and 36 figures in the text. The contents of the separate articles are arranged in the following order : — synonymy and literature-references, specimens examined, distribution, indication of differences between races so far as concerns the Congo and neighbouring areas, habitat, and finally general field notes, nests and eggs. In this last Dr. Chapin, where he may not have material of his own, occa- sionally permits himself to reproduce, with acknowledgements, the observ- ations of others. One feels that this is a book by an ornithologist for ornithologists, and so willingly dispenses with long detailed descriptions for which reference can be made to existing works. So also with ‘English’ names : Dr. Chapin points out how inapt such a name as Crombec is for the Sylviettas, and he 116 Book Reviews. VOL. XXII might have gone a good deal further. Roberts’ invaluable book is, for the English reader, disfigured by scores of names which have obviously had to be invented for the occasion and which he can neither pronounce, under- stand, or remember. It is found that European boys quickly learn at least generic names in the simple ‘Latin’ of scientists, and it is surely better to refer to a bird as a Brady pterus than as a Swamp Warbler when it neither lives in swampland nor sings. In general, the families and genera in this book follow the order of Sclater’s Systema, but Dr. Chapin emphasizes that in the Timaliidae, Sylviidae and Muscicapidae the dividing lines are not always clear. Here, as in the matter of size of genera and deciding how much difference from a near relative entitles a bird to be regarded as a separate species, and how much as a geographical race only, opinion must come in. One qualified person may take one view, another another. There is no mathematical formula which can be applied to express the numberless degrees of rela- tionship; we have at most only three words to express what a form may show, and must just do our best. It seems to this reviewer that Dr. Chapin steers a fair midway course between “lumpers” and “splitters”. In the matter of other people’s naming of races, one senses that if a competent ornithologist living so to speak on the spot, and with an obviously ade- quate mass of material before him, has decided that such-and-such a population constitutes a nameable sub-species because of the (stated) differences which it exhibits, then Dr. Chapin does not lightly cast that name into a synonymy. If in such a case he does reject the name, he gives his reasons and the reader is in a position to judge for himself. Would that this example might be generally followed. Birds do not recognize political boundaries. Especially in the particular case of the neighbouring forests of Ituri and West Uganda, there is such a close resemblance between the avifaunas of the Congo Beige and the British territories in East Africa, that there is little Dr. Chapin writes th:.t can be said to be without bearing on some bird or birds within our borders. To go into every such relationship would take up space greater than can be allowed for this review, and the reviewer has therefore looked at the matter from the standpoint most natural to himself as a resident in Kenya and selected some of what seem to him the most interesting cases which affect our Kenya birds, whether in systematics or nomenclature; at the same time reminding the reader that other selections might equally well be made fi’om the viewpoint of a birdman for the other territories. To give some details : — First, the family Alaudidae. The singing bushlark so commonly heard and found breeding at Magadi in the rains (if they fall) is shown, follow- ing Grant and Praed, to have been wrongly named cheniana in the Sys- tema : it should be Mirafra cantillans schillingsi Rchw. In a footnote Dr. Chapin suggests that the matter may be carried still further : the race name February, 1954. Book Reviews. 117 may more properly be meruensis Sjostedt, and the whole cantillans group be referred to the south-eastern species javanica Florsfield. That would make, if both suggestions are adopted, our bird M. javanica meruensis. M. alhicauda, also found in Kenya, e.g. at Nakuru, must be closely related to javanica also, it would seem, although specifically distinct. This reviewer can vouch for it that the songs of the Magadi birds are strikingly like that of M. cheniana in the Orange Free State, but that neither is ordinarily a mimic, such as are both javanica in Australia and albicaudm in Kenya. Dr. Chapin is not satisfied of the correctness of the division of the plain- backed pipits (Fam. Motacillidae) into two sibling species, a light coloured one vaalensis and a dark one leucophrys. He would leave all in leucophrys (the earlier name). The form goodsoni (found at Nakuru) thus remains Anthus 1. goodsoni. Otherwise it would become .A. vaalensis goodsoni. Most of Van Someren’s new races described from the Chyulu Hills are sustained, upon the principle, rro doubt, to which reference is made above. The colour-dirTerences between the various Yellow Wagtails (to which the generic name Motacilla is restored instead of Budytes) are carefully described : only one species, flava, is recognized for all. There are three small Bulbuls found side by side in Kavirondo forests, Andropadus c. curvirostris, A. gracilis gracilis and A. ansorgei kavirondensis (the Charitillas g. kavirondensis of the Systema). The differences are point- ed out : it lies now with field observers in that locality to see whether nests and eggs can be distinguished. For the Pycnonotus bulbuls the specific name harhatus is used to include all the species from North Africa to the Cape Province except capensis and nigricans: and there is at least a hint that these two, and xanthopygos of Syria and Aden, might also be brought into the same category. Field workers would agree: there is scarcely any noticeable difference between any of them in habits, voice, nest or eggs, and the existence of overlap anywhere is doubtful. The co-existence of Phyllastrephus terrestris and P. strepitans on the coastlands of East Africa is accepted. It would be of interest to know exactly what differences there are in nests and eggs in those areas. The genus Nicator, hitherto placed among the Shrikes, is removed to the Bulbuls, and the East African form gularis is accorded specific rank. Neither of these decisions will command universal acceptance, but reasons are given. In the Campephagidae the species Campephaga quiscalina is separated, but the rest, in which the males may have a red or a yellow shoulder-patch, or none, are treated as intergrading geographical races of one widespread 118 Book Reviews. VOL. XXII species phoenicea. This seems a good and natural solution of a long- standing difficulty. The forest-inhabiting babblers which up to now have been variously grouped under the genera Alcippe, Turdinus, Ptyrticus, Illadopsis and Pseudoalcippe are re-arranged into three genera — Malacocincla, Ptyrticus and Pseudoalcippe; and, as is done in Jackson, the bird formerly called Alethe poliothorax is added to the assemblage as a Malacocincla. We have in Kenya, of these little known birds, M. julvescens and M. rufipennis re- presented by races at Kakamega, and M. pyrrhopterus and P. ahyssinicus at higher levels. For M. poliothorax a locality in Kavirondo is given. In Turdoides, the ‘Happy Family’ genus of scrubland Babblers, the sug- gestion is made that plebejus and jardinei form but one species. Of these, plebejus is the older name. That would give us in Kenya two races of plebejus, namely kikuyuensis from the Escarpment to Mau, and cinereus in the Nyando Valley and north to the Turquel. But note that T. melanops (not hitherto questioned as a separate species) is found alongside plebeius at Naivasha and Kisumu so that care in identification is necessary since this is a genus of which all members are much alike in habits, voice, nests and eggs. Coming to the Sylviidae, Dr. Chapin agrees with Austin Roberts that by priority the yellow-bellied, grey-backed Eremomelas ought to be called E. icteropygialis and not E. flaviventris or E. griseoflava, since there is but one species and the first is the earliest name. Another group of Eremomelas, pusilla-canescens, are also brought together into a single species, for which the name must be pusilla. Our one form in Kenya (Highlands west of Rift) becomes E. p. elgonensis VanS. (incidentally, the reference to the B.B.O.C. near the top of p.269 should be to Vol. 62, not Vol. 61). The genus Apalis (for which we may congratulate ourselves on the fact that no given ‘English’ name seems to have a chance against the scientific one) has long created taxonomical trouble, in the two widespread groups which may be called the spot-chests and the bar-throats respectively. In the former, the jlavida-caniceps group. Dr. Chapin considers all should be united under one specific name, though Dr. Van Someren and Messrs. Grant and Praed think otherwise. Once again, it is mainly a question of the ordering of known facts, though we might usefully have more skins from the area of alleged overlap of species on the east side of Lake Victoria. In the second, the bar-throats, we have as a comparatively recent addition to our avifauna griseiceps from Chyulu. This is treated by Dr. Chapin as probably a race of thoracica of South Africa, which would lead to the wel- come simplification of there being but one species all the way up from the Cape with, however, some striking racial differences en route. We may thank the meticulous care which Admiral Lynes devoted to the genus Cisticola, for the fact that so few forms, considering how large a February, 1954. Book Reviews. 119 genus it is, have been added since his day. The chief change, for which indeed Lynes himself was prepared, is in the transfer of the species angusticauda to Cisticola from Apalis. One cannot yet feel altogether satisfied that chubhi and hunteri may not form a single species, but Dr. Chapin merely raises the point without deciding more than that they are closely inter-allied, as field acquaintance shows. The question of the best arrangement of the forms commonly grouped under the genus-name Calamocichla, and in particular whether we have to do with a sibling pair of species, does not seem to the reviewer convincingly settled. Dr. Chapin finds there are in fact siblings, both widespread, a smaller one gracilirostris with in Kenya the races leptorhyncha on the coast, jacksoni at Kisumu and parva in the Highlands; and a larger species rufescens which so far as we in Kenya are concerned occurs only on Lake Victoria, in the race nilotica side by side with the small bird jacksoni. Against this, nobody else has questioned that the Naivasha bird, parva, de- spite its unfortunate name, must be regarded as a large species, since the type measured in the wing 78 mm., well inside Dr. Chapin’s key measure- ment of “males usually exceeding 73 mm”. Dr. Chapin, however, considers that another criterion may be usefully applied; for he says that all the races of gracilirostris in tropical Africa differ from rufescens in having the base of the mandible pinkish-buff and the lining of the mouth bright orange. Yet Dr. Van Someren writes of nilotica (1922 p.231) that it has the gape orange in the adult and yellow at earlier life-stages. The nests shown in the text-figure on Dr. Chapin’s p.448 as those of rufescens are very like, both in structure and attachment, those of parva found in papyrus on Lake Naivasha, and quite unlike those of jacksoni at Entebbe, whose eggs, also, are noticeably smaller than parva’s. Jackson (p.l046) describes nests of parva at Naivasha but seems to imply that they were not built in papyrus but in reeds near papyrus. If that is what he means, such a site for any Calamocichla’ s nest has not been seen by the reviewer, who has found many in the papyrus. Can Jackson’s nests have been those of the smaller sibling? And may it be that he just did not happen to come across the nests of the larger species in papyrus ? Here is some work for the young and keen to take on. We need much more material. Chloropeta, undoubtedly in all its habits a genus of Warblers, is removed, one hopes for good, from the flycatcher family. C. similis Richmond, the forest-dweller, is recognised as being distinct from the brushwood and river-margin inhabiting C. natalensis. For two birds whose songs are so dissimilar, it is surprising that it is so hard to find any consistent difference in the eggs. The removal of Hylia to the Warblers is perhaps not so clearly justified, but if it does not deserve a family to itself it at all events is no Sunbird : nidification and egg show so much. Among Turdidae, Erythropygia harhata of the coast and the next belt of country inland is taken into the 120 Book Reviews. VOL. XXII southern genus Tychaedon, while the migrant Galactotes, which in its races syriacus and familiaris is a winter-visitor to Kenya, becomes a member of Erythropygia as has long been suggested by writers. The zavnbesiana- leucoptera assemblage, now treated as one species, and the distinct species hartlauhi, are all that is left of Erythropygia as it formerly was. This is another useful simplification : there is much variation in the amount and depth of breast-markings in these ‘African Nightingales’ as the Percivals of Mamandu used to call them, as might be expected with a bird widespread over differing levels, but ^all the nests and eggs are much alike. The robin-like Sheppardia cyornithopsis lopezi is noted as occurring in Kavirondo. S. sokokensis Van S. from the Sokoke Forest can hardly be more than a race of the same species, constituting one more instance of a bird found in the country about Lake Victoria and turning up again at the coast in slightly different form, with no near relatives on the interven- ing higher ground. Large specimens of the Common Wheatear appear from, time to time in Kenya as winter migrants. These are now tentatively assigned by Dr. Chapin to Oenanthe oe. rostrata. But ‘Ibis’ 1931 p.234 should be referred to. Another migrant wheatear is common about Nairobi and Karen buildings at the same season; its name is now Oe. pleschanka again, this antedating leucomela which has been for some time in use. Neocossyphus, a rare bird but a striking one, must surely have been omit- ted from Jackson by oversight. It occurs sparsely in the coastal scrubs of Kenya. The changed systematic arrangement of the better known thrushes of the genus Turdus will cause some surprise among field ornithologists. Dr. Chapin rests his conclusions, however, on field observation as well as on the study of skins of all forms involved. The result is that the Kurrichane Thrush of the Systema, which is there accorded a distribution from the Transvaal right up to Senegal, is now limited to the south of a line which may be roughly described as Tanganyika, Katanga, North Angola. Uganda birds (centralis) which have been considered as conspecific with the Kurri- chane and are very like that bird in habits, nests and eggs, are now placed m one species with the Olive Thrush of the Cape (olivaceus) : this species is now treated as extending over most of the continent north to Eritrea on one side and the Gambia on the other. But excluded from olivaceus are the forest Thrushes found from Mlanje Mountain north and north-east- wards through Ruwenzori, Kivu, Kenya and the eastern highlands of Tanganyika to Abyssinia and Eritrea, in suitable localities of course. These now become races of T. ahyssinicus Gmelin whose type-locality is Abys- sinia. Turdus tephronotus from Lamu and parts of that coast does not fall to be considered closely by Dr. Chapin, and there is also a form near centralis in the Kerio Valley which is at present of uncertain status. It February, 1954. Book Reviews. 121 would be interesting to see a series of skins from the Eritrean high plateau where is would seem that olivaceus and abyssinicus may meet. In the flycatcher family, the Muscicapidae, the species Alseonax cinereus is transferred to the genus Hypodes, of Cassin, and its race cinereus is con- sidered to include all Kenya birds of the species. It should, however, be kept in mind that van Someren (1922 p.96) found that his race kikuyuensis from Kyambu could be distinguished from Voi and Tsavo birds, and that Sclater agreed with this differentiation. The difficulties in the taxonomy of the sibling pair, and perhaps others, in the genus Bradornis are not wholly cleared up. Perhaps study of nests and eggs might help to a solution, for in Ukamba we find the siblings side by side {microrhynchus and pallidus or griseus), the former making a stoutish though small nest lined with feathers or at least generally with some feathers in it and laying uniform olive eggs, while the latter makes a smaller transparent nest and lays heavily marked eggs. Pallidus ranges from Nyasaland right up to Eritrea and its eggs, though varying in size, are always of one type ; microrhynchus’ eggs are not yet known except from the drier parts of Kenya and from north-eastern Tanganyika. For Alseonax minimus (Heuglin) Dr. Chapin substitutes the specific name adustus, thus making the races in Kenya {interpositus, marsabit and chyulu) all geographical forms of the Dusky Flycatcher of South Africa. Field naturalists will probably find that this conforms to their own ideas. The lake-side flycatcher which uses old weavers’ nests to lay in, and which is called by Jackson Alseonax aquaticus, is put back into Muscicapa. The race at Kisumu is infulata Hartl. In the genus Diaphorophyia (small forest flycatchers not unlike Batis in appearance and habits) the name of the species which we know as jamesoni, which inhabits Nandi, is changed to blissetti and the Nandi bird in consequence becomes D. b. jamesoni Sharpe. Another change in this genus is that D. ansorgei silvae of Jackson becomes D. concreta graueri Hartert. This is found in Kavirondo. Terpsiphone (this name is restored for the Paradise Flycatchers in place of Tchitrea) is bound to go on causing systematic difficulties owing to the (assumed) hybridisation in West Africa whose effects have spread far to eastward and are observable in Kenya. The crossings have been between two western forest-inhabiting species, rujiventer and rufocinerea, with viridis of bushland and savannas. What Dr. Chapin does is to give us (figs. 28-31) drawings which, if they do not say the last word, will at least help the student to grasp the salient elements in a position so complex that it may fairly be said to have no parallel in the bird-life of the Ethiopian Region. The Blue Flycatchers which have generally been called Erannornis now revert to the older name Elmdnia. From experience, this has the merit of 122 Book Reviews. VOL. XXII being easier to spell than the other, but it may be confused in memory with that of the warbler-genus Eminia. One of the three forms of crested and fantailed flycatchers (genus Trochocercus) found in Kenya, T. b. vittatus Rchw., has its name changed to T. cyanomelas hivittatus Rchw. This name is considered by Dr. Chapin to apply to all birds of the species from the coast inland to Mr. Uraguess: but Dr. Van Someren has distinguished central forest birds by reason of larger size. There are few changes among the Hirundinidae, but the generic name of the Grey-Rumped Swallow becomes Pseudhirundo, and the Rock Martin of Kenya is to be Ptyonoprogne fuligula rufigula instead of F. r. rufigula as it is in Jackson. Dr. Chapin seems to suggest that Hirundo aethiopica of the tropics might be treated as conspecific with the South African bird alhigularis. Habits and nidification are the same, and the only differences are in size and the continuity of the breast-band, which seem hardly enough to rest a specific differentiation upon. This review has emphasized the taxonomic value of Dr. Chapin’s work because it is primarily scientific in character and outlook : but in almost every article there will be found something to interest the lover of birds and much also for the general reader, dealing as it does with what is still largely an unspoiled part of a fascinating continent. Those who have already had some experience of nature as it reveals itself in the dark forests of Africa may well, as they read, imagine themselves treading once more on the carpet of damp leaves under the dense shadow of great trees and thick undergrowth, listening awhile as human footfalls cease and the creatures of the primeval wilderness begin to move again, to the rustle of small animals and the voices of a hunting-party of birds following up a line of safari ants for what they can get in the way of insects, be it only the ants themselves. The reviewer apologises if he has been insufficiently critical. He just does not feel able to criticize. But he can and does appreciate and thank the writer, and with him the native assistant Nekuma, for good work done. C.F.B. A PRELIMINARY LIST of the BIRDS OF NATAL and ZULULAND, with a short account of the status of each; prepared by P. A. CLANCEY, Director, Museum and Art Gallery, Durban. October 1953. Published by the Durban Museum, pp. 85. Zululand is part of the Province of Natal, yet is so often thought of as being a distinct area that Mr. Clancey did well to include the name in his title. The list comprises 561 species as compared with 875 for the whole Union in Austin Roberts’ book. February, 1954. Book Reviews. 123 In general, the arrangement is that of Vincent’s Union-wide list (Jack Vincent, A Check List of the Birds of South Africa, Cape Times, 1952). Inevitably, there are departures from Roberts, a highly individualised work, in the treatment of species and races as well as of genera. There is no general agreement on such matters, and there will be no uniform result in print till some accepted outside body acts as arbiter. The subdivisions of which Mr. Clancey makes use are Orders, Sub-orders (where convenient). Families and Genera. As is done in ‘The Ostrich’ the names of species are printed in capitals, the same as family-headings. The particular race or races of each species occurring in the area are given in italics below the species-name, and in every case the author of the name, specific or racial, is given following it. Generic names are placed, in roman type, at the head of the species which they comprise. On the right hand side of the page is the English name, and beneath that a few words indi- cating status. A serial number is given to each species, the series running right through. There is no index, but the list of Families at the beginning enables a reader who has some idea of his birds to find any species he w'ants speedily. The whole layout is clear, concise and easily scanned; it would, this reviewer thinks, have been still clearer had specific names been printed in roman type, leaving capitals to family-headings. One notes a tendency to enlarge the genus beyond what is usual. Exam- ples are: — the genus Erythrocnus disappears in Butorides, Stephanoaetus in Polemaetus, all the other Bustard genera in Otis, Cinnyris and Chalco- mitra in Nectarinia, etc., etc. Some of these look like stretching the notion of genus even beyond the bounds of what is convenient. Without question, Roberts’ narrow view met with scant approval from ornithologists working outside South Africa, and parochialism must be avoided : but it has to be kept in mind that a whole generation almost of young South African bird- lovers have to be brought back gently to the right road if they ax’e to be brought back at all. Mr. Vincent has shown the way; one only hopes that Mr. Clancey may not have overshot the mark by his drastic expansions. It is most important to have the country behind its natural leaders in the science, and understanding why. In some cases it is thought that Mr. Clancey has been over-ready to accord specific rank where the modern current runs in favour of treating the forms in question as subspecific only. Such instances are Haematopus moquini, Charadrius marginatus, Larus hartlaubi, Upupa africana, Mota- cilla lutea, Nilaus nigritemporalis. No two systematists seem able to agree on what should be done with Calamoecetor (or Calamocichla) and Mr. Clancey’s English names for these birds do not cast any further light. Indeed, necessary as a purge was to get rid of some at least of the names which Mr. Clancey stigmatises as “egregious”, it might have been better not to disturb Mr. Vincent’s ones for this genus. 124 Book Reviews. VoL. xxn There are a lot of cases where it seems best to cut the Gordian knot by using the scientific name as the English one. Nicator, where Mr. Clancey does this, is a good case in point: it is easy to remember, it does not preju- dice the issue of whether the bird is a Shrike or a Bulbul or something else altogether, and every naturalist who knows the bird uses it already. Why not treat Batis the same way ? and why not Cisticola tout seul in the case of another much-referred to group ? Mr. Clancey’s List is a most useful contribution to the mosaic of work on the ornithology of the Ethiopian region which by the efforts of many is gradually being shaped into unity; but there are still many almost- blanks to fill, some larger, som.e smaller. Every ornithologist who concerns himself with Africa must look forward to the day when someone will do for this generation what Reichenow did for an earlier one. The model is there, and could hardly be improved upon, but there have been advances in systematics since Reichenow’s day and an enormous mass of material has accumulated awaiting analysis and utilisation. It is a life’s work for somebody, English, American or may it be German as before, and it will entail the expenditure of much money : but it will have been worth it if it can be faithfully done. C.F.B. A CHECK LIST of the BIRDS of NY AS ALAND (including data on ecology and breeding seasons). By C. W. Benson, B.A. (Cantab.). Published by the Nyasaland Society (P.O. Box 125, Blantyre), and the Publications Bureau, Secretariat, Lusaka, 1953. Price 6/- (to Members of the Nyasa- land Society 5/-). The author’s aims are set out in his Introduction. Since Belcher’s book was published in 1930, about 150 forms (including races) have been added to the Nyasaland list, mostly by Mr. Benson or through his efforts. There has thus been a great increase in our knowledge of the birds of the Pro- tectorate : indeed, thanks to the fortunate circumstances of there being on the spot a worker so well equipped for obtaining and assessing informa- tion, the rate of ornithological advance has been greater in Nyasaland than in any other part of the Ethiopian Region that comes to mind. Mr. Benson’s material has, in the main, already been published from time to time in ornithological journals, but these are not easy of general access and it was an excellent idea to give it now to the general public in this form. Rarely can there have appeared a book on birds in which so much detail has been compressed into so small a compass without loss of clearness or accuracy. The reader must at the outset remember that this is a scientifically-framed list of birds inhabiting or visiting a particular area, and not an account of their habits or a description of their appearance : for such, recourse must be had to other works, to which Mr. Benson makes reference. The nomenclature, with few exceptions, is that of Praed and Grant in their work on the birds of eastern and north-eastern Africa now in course February, 1954. Book Reviews. 125 of publication; where that is departed from, a reference is given to the authority followed. After the Introduction, the first part of the book is a description of the various kinds of bird-habitat which are to be found in Nyasaland, divided first into dry and wet areas and then each of these subdivided again into areas which by reason of their distinctive vegetation or other differences, in character exhibit corresponding differences in bird life. Every field - worker knows how birds are affected by type of locality, but it has not often been set out so methodically in print for a large area. The List itself is immediately preceded by a Table of Families which can be scanned at one opening so that, index apart, a species can be found in a moment or two. With 609 species to be enumerated, all unnecessary matter must, one sees, be cut away; and there must be constant resort to abbreviations. The result cannot help reading a little bare and skeletonized to one who casual- ly dips into the book — the average entry must take up less than an inch — but a little patience will show the ornithologically-minded that this is a veritable mine of exact information, at once a conspectus of the indi- vidual species and a guide to amplified accounts. It is thought that a better idea of the nature, scope and value of the book will be given by example than description, and here is one taken at random, which happens to deal with one of the smaller hawks, the kestrel of England and of South Africa : “ 61. Falco tinnunculus. Kestrel. B.57, R.123. (a) (PM) F. t. tinnunculus. Once; Bembeke 1. (67). (b) F. t. rupicolus. Above 2,000 ft. Rocky Hills, on which breeds, also tobacco barns. (Br.) VIII, 1. Lisiye, tobacco barn (Rf.) 36. 67. ” That terse note, expanded by reference to interpretations of its abbrevia- tions, all to be found in the book, conveys the information that the Kestrel is dealt with in Belcher’s Birds of Nyasaland at p.57 and in Roberts’ Birds of South Africa at p.l23. Next, that two forms of it have been found in Nyasaland; firstly the type race as a palaearctic migrant but with only one record, an occurrence in the month of January at Bembeke, a place 6 miles S.E. of Dedza Boma, which was published in ‘The Ibis’ for 1940 at p.284, and secondly the South African race as a permanent resident at levels above 2,000 ft. a.s.l., where it inhabits, and nests in, rocky hills. It also nests in the high brick barns in which tobacco is cured on the plantations. The sole breeding record of this resident form in Nyasaland relates to a nest found at Lisiye 8 miles north of Mphunzi in Dedza district in the month of August in a tobacco barn. Finally, further references are given to the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, U.S.A.,, and to “The Ibis”. 126 Book Reviews. VOL. XXII This will indicate sufficiently how much is told, and how little space wasted. After the main List, there follow six appendices. The first gives 15 species listed by Belcher but which are for one reason or another now rejected. The second is a list of ‘possibilities’ — 29 in number. Appendix 3 is a full, if highly compressed bibliography. No. 4 is a gazetteer of all localities in Nyasaland which are mentioned in the work. No. 5 is an alphabetical list of native names of birds, with authorities. Finally, No. 6 is a short ‘Addenda’. There is an Index of Genera, which is all the index an ornithologist needs to any bird-book. One obvious criticism is that the name of the original describer of the species by the scientific name which it bears in the text, is not given. This is usually done in a work of the scientific importance of Mr. Benson’s book, though it was not done by Roberts. The direct uses of giving it are several. A name may be resuscitated after a long interval, or it may be a quite recent bestowal; and in either case one would like to know, why the change? At other times one wishes to be able to check a priority. Or, again, so simple a matter as a mistake in spelling seems to be on the tapis, and yet in certain cases such a mistake must stand; is this one ? There are, indeed, few spelling mistakes to be suspected in the present work, but one does seem to see such in ‘baboecala’ (415) ‘aibifrons’ (556) and ‘Pogoniu- lius’ (287 and 288). It is perhaps not of great importance to English readers whether the ‘umlaut’ is there or not in words of German origin such as ‘fiilleborni’ : but it changes the pronunciation, and in fact it is the better practice to insert it, if in the original. There are some items of interest to ornithologists in Mr. Benson’s book to which particular attention may be drawn. The evidence for local breed- ing of the Osprey (nestlings being fed) is convincing if the observer was reliable. Ten occurrences of Porzana marginalis indicate that this rail is not so rare as had been supposed. Clamator jacohinus is considered res- ponsible for some at least of the blue eggs found in Turdoides’ nests. It may be remembered that all of this Cuckoo’s eggs ih South Africa are white, as also was one taken from the oviduct by Jackson at Namanga in Kenya. But Abyssinian eggs described by Erlanger were blue, as are all Indian ones. The data given concerning Centropus suggests that possibly the senegalensis and monachus groups may be conspecific. (The reference to C. s. hurchelli under No. 212 is not quite clear). Every field naturalist who knows the birds’ calls will agree with Mr. Benson in placing Capri- mulgus fervidus as a race of C. pectoralis; one wonders if the same test will confirm the conspecificity of C.guttijer with C. poliocephalus, which also has a most distinct call. The specific name narina for the more common of the two Trogons may or may not be a person’s name; one would like to know the origin of it in Stephens’ mind. Mr. Benson accepts the view. February, 1954. Book Reviews. 127 rejected by Dr. Chapin, that the long-billed pipits belong to a sibling pair of species, the dark leucophrys and the light vaalensis. Priority must de- cide, but it seems a pity that we have to label so common an African species as Richard’s Pipit ‘novaezeelandiae’ . Mr. Benson indicates that he con- siders Syrian bulbuls of the genus Pycnonotus to be conspecific with tropical birds by using for the latter the specific name ‘xanthopygos’, but does not show why the earlier ‘harhatus’ should be superseded. A most interesting observation recorded under species No. 433 suggests doubts as to the distinctness of Camaroptera hrachyura and C. hrevicaudata. Pos- sibly hybridisation ? At the same time as Mr. Skead is finding evidence of crossing between Zosterops virens and Z. eapensis in the Ciskei, Mr. Benson emphasizes the difficulty of separating Z. virens from Z. senegalensis. These species seem distinct enough in Kenya; but the whole genus in Africa needs a review in the light of more material than at present seems avail- able. The occurrence of the Mascarene Martin (No. 465) at Lake Chilwa in mid-winter is something wholly new for Africa. A suggestion that Ploceus nigriceps is conspecific with P. spilonotus and P. cucullatus would, if translated into actuality, simplify the taxonom.y of a difficult group; cucullatus appears to be the oldest name. In deciding for his list the question, good species or only a race ? — Mr. Benson has leaned towards the older school (perhaps following Messrs. Grant and Praed whose first volume alone has up to now been seen by the public) and away from the biological concept used by Mayr and other modern American writers; but he frequently points out the alternative without adopting it. There are cases of doubt throughout the list : in par- ticular, one notices that of the various Yellow Wagtails, usually treated as conspecific but here as separate species. Differences of opinion will always exist on this head; the unfortunate thing is that until there is some recogn- ized arbiter on at least the Anglo-American level, the differences will go on perpetuating themselves in print, to the puzzlement of the novice who will be the ornithologist of tomorrow and needs encouragement. This is indeed an excellent book, which everyone interested can afford and should order while it is still in print. It seems to the reviewer as good value, having regard to contents on one side and price on the other, as has been put before African bird-lovers for a very long time. C.F.B. THE BIRDS OF WEST AND EQUATORIAL AFRICA by David Armitage Bannerman Vol. One, Struthionidae to Picidae — Vol. Two, Eurylaemi- dae to Ploceidae. In all pp. 1526. 1953, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. £6.6s. net. These two volumes represent the pith of the matter contained in the author’s great work on the Birds of West Africa which was published by the Crown Agents under governmental authority in eight volumes, of which 128 Book Reviews. the first appeared in 1930 and the eighth in 1951. That larger publication is now hard to obtain: we noticed it recently in a bookseller’s catalogue priced at £48 with no indication of condition. The present work is no ordinary abridgment, but a complete rewriting, and in consequence it makes admirable reading. There is an abundance of those black-and-white drawings which do so much more than one would have thought possible to reproduce a bird’s true appearance and so facilitate identification, with, for full measure, 54 beautifully executed plates by Lodge, admirably pro- duced. A change of title will be noticed. It was found that three-quarters of the 1536 forms inhabiting West Africa range right across the continent, so that the Congo Beige, the British Territories in East Africa, and the Sudan have geographical representatives of them, if not the identical species or race. These eastern forms are now dealt with in the text, which gives the two volumes a positive advantage over the larger work for orni- thologists in East Africa. The merits of the lesser bulk need not be stress- ed. The same drawings of heads and feet to illustrate family character- istics are here, as in the earlier volumes, and there are as many keys as the field-worker could possibly want. There is less detailed scientific matter, and more general talk about the bird; which is really what is most appreciated by the seeker after retainable knowledge : if one misses any- thing it is the abundant field notes which were so liberally disposed through the larger work; these have had to be compressed into more general state- ments of fact from the nature of the new book. We hope that everyone who can do so will get himself a copy of this book while it is still in print : it is an addition to one’s library that will surely never be regretted. C.F.B. -V-: PRINTED BY W. BOYD 8! CO.. (PRINTERS) LTD / Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society JUNE 1954. VOL. XX\T. No. 4 SPECIAL NUMBER. EAST AFRICAN COWRIES. EAST AFRICA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. Patrons, His Excellency The Hon. Sir Evelyn Baring, k.cjvi.g., k.c.v.o. Sir Philip Mitchell, k.c.m.g. Sir Henry Moore, k.c.m.g. President. R. W. Rayner, Esq., b.a., a.i.c.ta. Vice-President. H. Copley Esq,, o.b.e. Executive Committee. P. R. O. Bally, Esq., Colonel M. H. Cowie, m.l.c, W. Hale Esq., b.a. J. S. Karmali Esq., b.pharm., ph.c., d.b.a. Miss E. J. Blencowe, s.r.n., s.c.m. J. McDonald Esq., c.b.e., d.f.c. P. J. Greenway Esq,, d.sc., o.b.e., f.l.s. R. W, Barney, Esq. Secretary. Miss D. Ewing. Hon. Editor. J, G. Williams Esq., m.b.o.u. Hon. Treasurer. W. R. Bowles Esq. ) Hon. Librarian. R. A. F. Brenan Esq., m.a. All correspondence in connection with this Journal should be addressed to The Hon. Secretary, P.O. Box 658, Nairobi. Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society JUNE, 1954. VOL. XXII. No. 4 (96) Cover Design “Tiger Cowry” CONTENTS The Cowries of the East African Coasts. By B. Verdcourt By P. R. O. Bally, Page (Illustrated) 129 129 VoL. XXII THE COWRIES OF THE EAST AFRICAN COASTS (KENYA, TANGANYIKA, ZANZIBAR AND PEMBA)' By Bernard Verdcourt (East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organisation) A desire has been expressed for a paper of this nature and there is an excuse for writing one since all the monographs of which those by Hildalgo, Melvill, Kiener, Reeve, Sowerby and Roberts are the most important are rare and out of print. It is just possible that at least one of the 2,700 papers which have been written about cowries deals with the East African coasts but if so, it is certainly not generally known. The most important work on the group is the recent “Prodrome of a Monograph on Living Cypraeidae"’ by Dr. F.A. Schilder and Dr. M. Schilder (Proc. malac. Soc., Bond., 23, 119- 231, 1938-9). The volume containing this paper is also out of print. All the species known to occur on our coasts are included in this present paper. Rarities have been included since they are needed for the museum collect- ions. The Cowries (Cypraeidae) form a family recognisable at a glance, the shells being colourful, polished, more or less ovoid, rounded on the back but flatter below; the base is crossed by an aperture extending lengthways and bordered by ridges or teeth, usually numerous. The spire of the shell is reduced or sometimes entirely absent when adult. There is no operculum or ‘lid’ closing the entrance of the shell as is the case in most families in the order to which the cowry family belongs. The mantle or part of the body which lays down the shell has two large side flaps which meet over the back of the shell when the animal is in motion thus resulting in the high polish so characteristic of the family. The structure of the shell and general appearance of the animal is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The sexes are separate but identical in appearance. At one time the family included several groups such as Trivia and Erato which are now referred to families of their own. The whole of the cowries were at one time included in the single genus Cypraea but this has now been split into numerous genera. Many species have been divided into races or subspecies. In the descriptive part of this paper these accurate names have been used. At the request of the editor English names’" have been given to encourage beginners but the collector is recommended to give up this unscholarly practice once he becomes interested and to use at least the specific names. The racial names need not be used but are included here for completeness. There are 165 species of true cowries recognised at present (this number has been much exaggerated in some popular books) and 41 of these are recorded from our coasts by the Schilders, with three exceptions represented only by one subspecies ie. 44 forms in all. The writer has disregarded six of these records but recorded five other species, ’"Those used by Wood (Index Testaceologicus, 1828) have been employed where suitable. r M fiS' 5 •Si V Fig. 1 — Top and botttom views of a cowry, b=back, m=margins and mth=mouth. Fig. 2 — A Money Cowry with the animal extended, F=foot, M=mantle and S=shell. Fig. 3 — Columellar teeth of h : Blasicrura hirundo, o : B. owenii, and k : B. kieneri. Fig. 4 — Top and bottom views of Pustularia globulus. 1 June, 1954. East African Cowries 130 the total thus being 43. A few of these species were not available for illustration in either the writer’s or the Coryndon Memorial Museum collec- tion and the writer is indebted to the following persons and institutions who have kindly made donations or loans of material, or who have helped in other ways : — Mrs. Cockburn, Mrs. Ryall, Mrs. Finch, Miss Lewis, Mrs. Dingle, Mrs. Bailey, Miss Watkins. Miss Tudor, Mr. Barrow. Capt. Pitman. Mr. Mohinder Singh, Mr. Dickie, Mr. Berry, Mr. Clancey, Mr. Parsons, the late Col. Maxwell, Lt. Shelley, Mr. Bailey (Seychelles), Mr. K. D. Smith, Mr. R. C. Wood, The Peabody Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles Museum, The Pietermaritzburg Museum, and The Mauritius Institute. The photographs are the work of Mr. C. F. Hemming and are largely responsible for whatever value this paper has. A key based on the scientific classification of the family would not be of much practical value and the one devised is based chiefly on size and colour. After the species has been found from the key, the identification may be checked by referring to the brief descriptions of the species and to the plates. The index to species at the end of the paper refers to both plate and page numbers. It should be noted that juveniles can be identified only by using a comparison collection and the key will work only for fresh adult specimens. Juveniles may be told by their unfinished appearance; the edges of the mouth are sharp with only traces of teeth, the pattern is blurred and unformed and the spire is conspicuous. Worn shells should be discarded as unidentifiable and thrown away. Scientific nomenclature is that used by the Schilders and subsequent generic splits have not been utilized. KEY TO THE EAST AFRICAN COWRIES 1 Shell 5 cm. long or more 2 1 Shell under 5 cm. long ... 11 2 Base of shell and/or teeth coloured ... 4 2 Base and teeth white, rarely an obscure blotch on the base ... 3 3 Sides of shell rounded when viewed from end. Lowermost spots purplish-black ... Cypraea tigris 3 Sides of shell straight when viewed from end. Lowermost spots usually brown . . . Cypraea pantherina (Note: some forms of C. vitellus are over 5 cm. long but such specimens have not yet been record- ed from E. Africa. They would key to tigris here but may be distinguished by having white spots on a brown ground.) 4 Teeth violet, back flesh-coloured 4 Teeth not violet, back differently coloured Cypraea carneola 5 5 Shell cylindrical 5 Shell ovoid 6 Base and sides uniformly chocolate-coloured 6 Base and sides paler not chocolate-coloured Talparia talpa 6 8 7 31 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 VOL. XXII Shell 7 cm. long, back with brown rings Talparia argus Shell 10-11 cm. long, back with obscure spots and minute white pinhead marks Callistocypraea testudi- naria Back with white line joining the extremities. This line has white blotches joined to it, see Plate 9 Back without a line or with a simple line with Mauritia mappa no blotches joined to it 9 Sides and base uniformly chocolate or purple brown Sides and base white, tinted, or spotted Mauritia mauritiana 10 Base whitish, teeth brown. Shell 6 cm. long regularly reticulate Base flesh-tinged, teeth brown. Shell 7.5 cm. long. The white spots on the back tend to be joined by Mauritia histrio white lines Mauritia arahica Teeth violet, back flesh-coloured Without the above combination of colours Cypraea carneola 12 Back with raised granules or pustules Back without raised granules or pustules 13 14 Shell 1.4 cm. long, lilac with chestnut ends Shell 2-3 cm. long, pale brown with whitish Staphylaea staphylaea pustules, ends not chestnut Staphylaea nucleus Base or teeth coloured or spotted Base and teeth white or slightly tinged only at 15 the ends or sides (N.B. — Several species are included in the key twice because this character is a little difficult and slightly coloured specimens might be included in either group.) 33 Shell globular with produced ends, small 13 mm. long and 7.5 mm. wide, orange with brownish spots Shell usually larger, never so globular, and ends Pustularia globulus much less produced 16 Base dark orange, back with numerous close white specks and chestnut spots, ends pale lilac Not as above Erosaria helvola 17 Back with bands containing zigzag marks Back without zigzag marks 18 19 Back brown or purple with bands of white zigzag lines; shell 1.6-2. 8 cm. long, base whitish Back fawn or yellow; shell 1.8 cm. long, base Palmadusta diluculum yellowish Palmadusta ziczac Sides with clear violet spots, base flesh-coloured, teeth orange-salmon Sides without violet spots Cribraria chinensis 20 20 June, 1954. East African Coiories 132 20 Ends and teeth orange (actually teeth white bordered by fine orange lines), back with white spots often somewhat raised at the sides ... 21 20 Not as above 22 21 Teeth crossing the entire base 21 Teeth not crossing the entire base Staphylaea staphylaea Staphylaea limacina 22 Sides, base and teeth all dark brown ... Erronea onyx 22 Not as above . 23 23 Sides uniformly chestnut or dark brown, middle of base and teeth white 23 Sides spotted, not as above Erosaria caputserpentis 24 24 Teeth or grooves between them darker than the rest of the base 25 24 Teeth paler or the same colour as the rest of the base 28 2.5 Grooves between the white teeth brick-red, back spotted 25 Grooves between the brown teeth whitish, back Cypraea lynx reticulate 26 26 Sides rounded shell cylindric; sides and base pinkish-slate, spotted with blue-black spots, more on one side than the other Mauritia scurra 26 Sides more angled, shell ovoid; sides and base whitish or brownish with purple spots equally numerous on both sides 27 27 Shell humped, sides more vertical with spots rather large and more discrete 27 Shell depressed, the sides extended horizontally (margined) with blue-black and brown spots run- ning together. The dorsal reticulation and spots Mauritia histrio are smaller than in histrio Mauritia depressa 28 Edges margined, the margins pitted or indented above, marked with spots and lines 28 Edges not or scarcely margined, not indented, 29 spotted, but without lines 31 29 Each side with large squarish blotch of blue- black on margin; base spotted 29 Sides without large blotches but with the usual Erosaria nebrites spots 30 30 Extremities with terminal chestnut blotches, back with brown spots and whitish specks 30 Extremities not blotched, back with white spots often ringed with brown; sides and base violet Erosaria gangranosa tinted Erosaria viarginalis 31 Shell usually over 2.5 cm. long, base brownish flesh-coloured, grooves between teeth a little darker 31 Shell under 2 cm. long, base white or yellowish, grooves not darker Erronea caurica 32 31 32 133 VoL. XXII 32 Base yellow, sides with larger spots ... Palmadusta felina 32 Base white often spotted, sides with minute dots Blasicrura kieneri (N.B. — If the specimen has not yet been identi- fied and you still think it has a coloured base continue with the key — a few species may have a tinge of colour below but still be included in the next part of the key.) 33 Back clear yellow, white or greenish-yellow, un- marked or rarely with an orange ring. The sides of the base may be tinged yellow ... Monetaria moneta 33 Back not as above, if with an orange ring then not yellow 34 Back with a conspicuous brown blotch on grey- blue ground, edges orange-brown ... Blasicrura stolida 34 Not coloured as above 35 Margins spotted with marks usually different from those on the back 35 Margins not spotted but back pattern may descend down to the margins 36 Shell conspicuously margined, with indentations round the margins which are also marked with raised dots and dashes; margins with a dark blotch on either side crossing the margin (absent in a rare variety) ... Erosaria erosa 36 Not as above 37 Shell margined and pitted (rather obscurely) on ' one side; small 1.3-1. 6 cm. long, ends blotched with chestnut or orange ... Erosaria gangranosa 37 Without the above combination of characters 38 Back with bands of zigzag lines ... Palmadusta diluculum 38 Back without bands of zigzag lines 39 Shell about 4 cm. long, back pale brown with white spots, sides with numerous dark brown spots ... Erosaria lamarckii 39 Shell not as above, mostly under 3 cm. long 40 Back greenish-blue with very numerous distinct brown spots ... Erosaria turdus 40 Back differently marked not spotted but often with minute speckles or ‘freckles’ 41 Shell about 2-2.7 cm. long, back with three inter- rupted transverse milky brown bands. Side spots sparse ... Crihraria teres 41 Shell smaller differently coloured 42 Side spots large, base yellowish ... Palmadusta felina 42 Side spots minute, base white 43 Extremities blotched brownish-lilac below, back brownish, side spots almost obsolete ... Palmadusta fimbriata 43 Extremities blotched blackish above, back blue- green, side spots numerous 34 35 36 45 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 June, 1954. East African Cowries 44 Apical columellar teeth the longest (text lig. 3) 44 Middle columellar teeth the longest (see text for B. owenii (Sow.) ) 45 Sides of shell and usually the edges of the base broadly dark brown or chestnut Sides pale, not as above 45 46 46 Back bluish or pinkish with a bright orange- yellow ring (annulus) Back without a yellow ring 47 Back white with three strong chocolate-brown bands 47 Back without or with vague bands 48 Back brown speckled with white spots Back not marked with white spots Blasicrura kieneri Blasicrura hirundo Erosaria caputserpentis 49 Shell 2.5-5 cm. long, back milky-brown 49 Shell smaller, back brown with numerous round white spots 50 Shell elongate about 3 cm. long, slate with lines of dark purplish-black dots and dashes, ends orange ( variable ) . 50 Shell under 2 cm. long, differently coloured 51 Back with faint pinkish-brown bands and very fine oblique orange hairlines which form angles near the margins (visible under a strong lens and when one knows what to look for they are just visible to the naked eye); not spotted 51 Back whitish, freckled with pale brown, with obscure central band, ends with a conspicuous brownish-lilac spot on each side Monetaria cmnulus Palmadusta asellus Cypraea vitellus Cribraria cribraria Luria Isabella 46 47 48 49 50 51 Palmudusta clandestina Palmadusta fimhriata DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES Globular Cowryf Pustularia globulus (Linn.) subsp. brevirostris Schilder Description : — Shell globular with produced ends, 1.3 cm. long and 0.75 cm. wide, back orange often with brownish spots, base yellowish-orange, teeth pale, middle ones running together. A very rare species, fresh specimens have been seen from the Seychelles (Bailey) and worn specimens from Likoni, Kenya (Ryall). Since the photo- graph of this species is poor a line drawing is also given (Fig. 4) Grooved Cowry Staphylaea staphylaea (Linn.) subsp. laevigata Dautz. Description : — Shell ovoid 1. 7-2.0 cm. long, back brownish-purple or greyish-brown, with small white spots and traces of raised whitish granules along the edges; extremities chestnut, base orange tinted, teeth extending across the base. Frequent to rare. yNB Either spelling Cowrie or Cowry may be used. 135 VoL. XXII Note . This is a variable species which tends to merge with the next one. One form of it is sufficiently different to be remarked upon. This form is short about 1.4 cm. long, back grey-lilac with raised whitish granules. It corresponds with the descriptions of some of the eastern races and needs further investigation. False Grooved Cowry Staphylaea limacina (Lmk.) subsp. interstincta (Wood) Description very similar to the smooth form of S. staphylaea but larger 2-2.7 cm. long, back purplish-brown with white spots; teeth not extending across the base. Frequent. Wrinkled Cowry Staphylaea nucleus (Linn.) subsp. madagascariensis (Gmel.) Description : — ■ Shell ovoid ends produced, about 2.6 cm. long, back with brownish pustules joined by ridges, whitish or pale lilac in worn shells; teeth extending over the entire base. Rare. Malindi (Pitman); Dar es Salaam (Mohinder Singh); Shanzu (Finch). Gangrene Cowry Erosaria gangranosa (Dill.) subsp. reentsii (Dunker) Description : — Shell small ovoid, 1.3-1. 6 cm. long, back yellowish-brown or greyish with numerous whitish spots and a few obscure brown spots, ends with chestnut blotches on either side, sides whitish with obscure spots, one side margined and punctate. Ends orange below, rest of base white. Rare. I have seen no East African material. Schilder says rather rare. Specimens are probably in existence in some of the many private collections in the country. Star Cowry Erosaria helvola (Linn.) subsp. argella Melv. Description ; — Shell ovoid 1. 8-2.8 cm. long, one side margined and pitted, back variable, turquoise or pale with close small white spots and larger superimposed chestnut spots in varying proportions, extremities pale lilac, margins and base orange-chestnut, a band just above the margins deep to very deep chestnut. Common. Snake’s Head Cowry Erosaria caputserpentis (Linn.) subsp. caput-serpentis Description Shell ovoid, base flattened and margins angled, 2.7-S.6 cm. long, back whitish with a reticulum (network) of chestnut or dark brown (equivalent to white spots on a dark ground) and often a white line joining the pale ends; margins and edges of base dark brown or chestnut, middle part of base and teeth white. Common. Margined Cowry Erosaria erosa (Linn.) subsp. erosa Description : — Shell ovoid, sides margined and ridged, 2.1-4 cm. long (much larger specimens occur in some other areas); back bistre oi giej.- June, 1954. East African Coiories 130 brown with numerous small whitish spots and a blue-grey line connecting the ends; margin with brown ridgelets and a squarish grey-brown blotch in the centre of each side crossing the margins. Base whitish with few orange-brown spots on one side. Teeth coarse extending to one margin. Frequent. Note : — Another race or subspecies is supposed to occur rarely but I have not identified it amongst any material I have seen. A very striking variety lacking the side spots or blotches is represented in the Museum collections by two specimens — Dar es Salaam (Dingle) and Mombasa (Leete). The status of this needs further investigation. False Margined Cowry Erosaria nehrites Melvill Description : — Very similar indeed to E. erosa but the blotches do not extend over the margins and are more chestnut than greyish. These blot- ches are often joined across the back by a darkish zone. The species is also more triangular and the base is tinted and spotted. Rare. Note : — I have seen one unlocalised specimen from our coasts and it is identical with one which I have from Port Sudan. Schilder claims that the two should belong to different races nebrites nebrites and nebrites mozambicana but I see no difference in the solitary specimens I have seen; rather would I seriously question the absolute specific identity of this taxon from E. erosa. Rare Margined Cowry Erosaria marginalis (Dill.) subsp. marginalis Description : — Shell ovoid 2.6 cm. long, back pale olive with white spots., some ringed with brown; sides and base tinted with violet, edges with purple dashes and dots. Teeth numerous. I have seen no specimens of this rare species from our coasts. Lamarck’s Cowry Erosaria lamarckii (Gray) subsp. lamarckii Description : — Shell ovoid about 4 cm. long, back bistre or pale brown with numerous whitish spots some of which have purple dots in them; and a pale line joining the ends. Margins and ends with dark brown spots, base pale. Frequent. Thrush Cowry Erosaria turdus (Lmk.) subsp. turdus Description Shell ovoid, base rather flattened, about 3 cm. long, back pale greenish-blue with very numerous yellow-brown spots like a thrush; sides white with large spots and some indented dots near the ends, base and teeth white. I have seen no specimens from our coasts but the species is very abundant in the Red Sea. 137 VoL. XXII Schilder records the nominate subspecies as frequent and the subspecies zanzibarica Sull. as rare on our coasts. Ringed Cowry Monetaria annulus (Linn.) subsp. camelorum (Rochebr.) Description ; — Shell ovoid 2-2.7 cm. long, back bluish, pinkish or greyish margined by a fine bright orange-yellow ring (ie an annulus); margins very pale flesh, base white. Abundant, one of the commonest cowries. It lives on sandy bottoms. Money Cowry Monetaria moneta (Linn.) aggregate. Description : — Shell ovoid, 1.5-2. 6 cm. long, white to deep yellow or greenish-yellow, base mostly white. Common. Schilder records only fossil M. moneta from East Africa but this must be a slip. Note : — There is supposed to be a rarer species similiar to M. moneta — M. icterina (Lmk.). This is reputed to be more elongate, larger and supposed to have minute differences in the teeth. I cannot satisfactorily distinguish these species nor have I been able to understand the supposed differences mentioned in Schilder’s statistical paper on the genus Monetaria. Onyx Cowry Erronea onyx (Linn.) subsp. adusta (Lmk.) Description : — Shell ovoid about 4 cm. long^ back dark chestnut sometimes with obscure bands across and an obscure line joining the ends, base and sides dark brown, teeth red-brown. Rare. Two specimens in the Coryndon Museum. Mombasa (Tudor). Thick-Edged Cowry Erronea caurica (Linn.) Description : — Shell ovoid or elongate-ovoid, 2. 5-3. 5 cm. long, rather thick- ened at the edges, back pale bluish or white densely mottled with khaki freckles, usually but not always with two pale bands readily distinguish- able. Sides flesh-tinted, with dark purple-brown spots, base tinted with flesh colour, the grooves between the strong teeth being darker. Very abundant. Notes : — There are two races recorded elongata (Perry) and dracaena (Born) but I have not distinguished these satisfactorily amongst the several hundred specimens I have seen. This species has often been wrongly deter- mined in East Africa as Luria lurida a totally dissimilar Mediterranean species. Who began this absurdity I can not imagine ! It has also been confused with Cribaria teres — the dorsal patterns are a little similar but the teeth are entirely different. June, 1954. East African Coiorics False Three-Banded Cowry Pahnaclusta clandestina (Linn.) subsp. passerina (IVIelv.) Description : — Shell ovoid about 1.7 cm. long, pinkish or pale bluish, faintly banded, ornamented with faint yellowish-brown hairlines which form angles here and there (a lens is needed to see them at first until one knows just what to look for). Rare. I have seen only three local specimens. Three-Banded Cowry Palmadusta asellus (Linn.) subsp. asellus Description : — Shell ovoid 1.3-2 cm. long, whitish with three distinct bands of chocolate-brown across the back. Schilder does not record this from our coasts but I have seen about seven specimens of it. Rather rare. Pale Zigzag Cowry Palmadusta ziczac (Linn.) subsp. misella (Perry) Description : — Shell ovoid 1.8 cm. long, back whitish with transverse brownish bands and darker intermediate areas of yellow or fawn zigzag lines, base yellow. Rare. Mombasa (Dickie). Dark Zigzag Cowry Palmadusta diluculum (Reeve) subsp. diluculum Description ; — Shell ovoid 1.6-2. 8 cm. long, back dull purple or chestnut with two marked and one less distinct transverse band of white zigzag marks, ends with purple-brown marks, sides with chestnut spots, base white. Frequent. Cat Cowry Palmadusta felina (Gmel.) subsp. felina Description : — Ovoid, about 2 cm. long, back blue-grey with obscure yellowish bands and abundant small khaki freckles. Sides with blackish- purple spots, ends with similar spots on either side, base and teeth yellowish. Rather rare but Schilder states ‘common’. Note ; — Similar to the Swallow Cowries but side spots much bigger. Small-Toothed Cowry Palmadusta fimbriata (Gmel.) subsp. durbanensis Schilder Description : — Shell ovoid or ovoid-elongate, about 1.5 cm. long, back whitish or faintly blue tinged, with numerous pale brown freckles and a double brownish band across the middle. The ends have a conspicuous purple-brown spot on either side. Base white, teeth small. Rare. Likoni (Ryall); Mombasa. Note : — Specimens of this have been wrongly called P. microdon (Gray) in collections in Nairobi. Schilder records the race chrysalis Kiener of micro- don as a fossil from Mombasa. The specimens I have seen are undoubtedly fimbriata which Schilder does not record from north of Mozambique. VoL. XXII ]3f) False Swallow Cowry Blasicrura kieneri (Hidalgo) subsp. kieneri Description : — Shell ovoid 1.2-2 cm. long, whitish or yellowish on the back with three blue-grey zones partly separated by narrow crooked pale zones. There are irregular blotches and tiny spots of dark purple-brown and chestnut on the sides and fine brown specks all over the back. There is often a dark interrupted band crossing halfway across the back, and two purple-brown blotches at either side of the ends. Base and teeth whitish. The columellar teeth (i.e. the teeth on that side of the mouth that continues into the shell) are longer at the top (particular the top three) than they are at the bottom (text fig. 3). Common. True Swallow Cowry Blasicrura hirundo (Linn.) subsp. francisca Schilder Description : — Very similar to the last species but sides thicker. Back lack- ing the dark interrupted band, teeth rather fine about 16-17 columellar teeth in shells 17 mm. long. The columellar teeth are longest in the middle and gradually become shorter towards the ends (fig. 3). I have seen no specimens from our coasts. Note : — In the Coryndon Memorial Museum there is an unlocalised specimen which may have been collected on our coasts. It is Blasicrura oioenii (Sow.). It is similar to hirundo, but more ovoid, with the sides more margined. The marginal spots are more numerous and the teeth are longer and coarser, there being about 12 columellar teeth in shells 17 mm. long. B. owenii is recorded by the Schilders from Mauritius, Madagascar and Natal. The specimen agrees best with the Mauritian race which may well extend northwards but until further material has been collected this record remains dubious. B. owenii is figured in the plates and B. hirundo may be identified from fig. 3. Square-Spotted Cowry Blasicrura stolida (Linn.) subsp. diauges Melv. Description : — Shell ovoid margined on one side, about 3 cm. long, ground colour of back grey-blue with minute brown specks and a large trapezoidal brown mark about 1 cm. long in the middle of the back; there are two vertical brownish streaks on the side which is margined, and on the other side two less distant stripes join with horizontal stripes which extend to the ends. The ends and margins are spotted or marked with orange-brown and the base although predominantly pallid is faintly tinged with the same colour. The only fresh specimen I have seen of this rare species is a superb shell collected at Sandy Bay, Ukunda by Mrs. Parsons. Kilifi (Lewis, very worn shell). Long Cowry Cribraria teres (Gmel.) subsp. alveolus Tapp. Description Shell ovoid-elongate 2.3-2.7 cm. long, back white with June, 1954. East Af?'ica?i Coivries 140 palest blue tinge with numerous yellow-brown markings which may be described as forming three diffuse transverse bands and five to six longi- tudinal bands, none of solid colour. Sides and base whitish, a few brown spots on the sides. Teeth rather fine. Rather rare. Shanzu (Finch). Diani Beach (Watkins) and several unlocalised specimens. Note This species is a little like E. caurica but has totally different teeth. Violet-Spotted Cowry Crihraria chinensis (Gmel.) subsp. violacea (Rous.) Description : — Shell ovoid about 3 cm. long, back tinged bluish marked with fine khaki pattern, margins flesh-coloured with conspicuous violet spots, base flesh, grooves between the strong teeth orange-salmon. Un- common. Note : — also called C. cruenta, a later name. Spotted Cowry Crihraria crihraria (Linn.) subsp. comma (Perry) Description : — Shell ovoid 1.6-2. 2 cm. long, back brown with numerous round white spots giving a conspicuous speckled appearance. There are traces of three bands. The margins and base are pure white. The animal is scarlet. Rather rare. Shanzu (Finch), Malindi (Tweedie). Isabelline Cowry Luria isahella (Linn.) subsp. isahella Description : — Elongated shell, more or less cylindrical, up to 3 cm. long, back pale slate or dull brownish-purple with longitudinal interrupted lines of dots and dashes in dark brown, ends orange, base white. Teeth numerous. Common. Tortoise Cowry Callistocypraea testudinaria (Linn.) subsp. ingens Schilder Description : — Shell large, elongate 10-11 cm. long, back brown with brownish spots and white indented pin-point-like spots, base flesh-coloured or brownish, teeth white. Rare. Zanzibar, Jardini (Dingle). There is a fine specimen from the Mozambique Channel (Laing) in the Coryndon Museum. Pheasant Cowry Talparia argus (Linn.) subsp. contrastriata (Perry) Description : — Shell elongate cylindrical, 7-8 cm. long, back pale brown, three-banded, covered with numerous brown rings, base ornamented with two or four large dark brown spots, usually two on either side of the Bernaya teulerei Caz. There is a dubious record of this from Zanzibar and it is here omitted. B. fultoni (Sow.) might also occur. 141 VOL. XXII brownish mouth. Rare. The only local specimen I have seen is one from Malindi collected in the lagoon within the outer reef (Shelley). Mole Cowry Talparia talpa (Linn.) subsp. imperialis Schilder Description : — Shell elongate about 6 cm. long, ground colour pale yellow with four broad brown bands, base dark chocolate brown, grooves between teeth pale. Frequent. Map Cowry Mauritia mappa (Linn.) subsp. alga (Perry) Description : — Shell ovoid, pear-shaped 6-7 cm. long, back brownish to violet-brown with rows of hieroglyphics and a wide white line joining the extremities. This line is peculiarly branched with blotches joined to it by stalks, along its length. Base and sides white or pink, teeth rich orange. The sides have numerous small conspicuous purplish spots extending over the base. Schilder states ‘rather rare’ but I have seen no local specimens. R. Wood has collected it at Mombasa (in litt.), The one figured is a speci- men from the Philippines. Jester Cowry (also known as Green-Spotted Cowry). Mauritia scurra (Gmel.) subsp. scurra Description; — Shell cylindrical, sides rounded, about 4.3 cm. long, back blue- green with olive-chestnut reticulation. A line connecting the ends is not reticulate but of the ground colour. Sides and base pinkish-brown or slate. Lateral spots blue-black, more on one side than the other, teeth chestnut. I have seen only one specimen — Kilifi, Aug. 1953 (Lewis). This was collect- ed on the outer reef in deep water at low tide. Schilder does not record this species from our coasts but as it occurs in Mozambique its appearance here is not surprising. Arabic Cowry Mauritia arahica (Linn.) subsp. immanis Schilder Description ; — Shell ovoid with flat base, about 7.5 cm. long but variable, back yellowish with irregular chestnut lines interrupted by scattered spots, also a pale line joining the ends. Sides bluish-white or flesh-tinted with large purple-black spots. Base bluish or flesh-tinted, teeth chestnut. Fairly common. Harlequin Cowry Mauritia histrio (Gmel.) Description ; — Similar to M. arabica but smaller, 5. 2-6. 2 cm. long, back with a regular netted (reticulate) pattern enclosing white spots, base white. Common. June, 1954. East African Coicries 142 Flattened Harlequin Cowry Mauritia depressa (Gray) subsp. dispersa Schilder Description : — Similar to M. histrio but much more depressed and sides distinctly margined and expanded. Marginal spots blue-black and brownish, superimposed and running together. Back chestnut, reticulate, but the spots in the reticulation and the side spots are much smaller than in M. histrio. Base tinted, teeth finer than in M. histrio. Extremes of this species are distinct but I have seen intermediates. I have seen a specimen from Dar es Salaam (Dingle) which matches exactly material from the Seychelles. The species is not recorded from East Africa by Schilder. Black Humped Cowry Mauritia mauritiana (Linn.) subsp. mauritiana Description : — Shell ovoid with flat base and angled margins, about 8.5 cm. long, back dull purple and yellowish with a superimposed reticulation of chocolate brown, so that the general effect is chocolate with numerous fairly large pale round spots. Margins and base dark purple-brown, teeth dark chocolate, grooves pale, teeth white inside at one end (fossula). Frequent. Tiger Cowry Cypraea tigris Linn, subsp. tigris Description ; — Shell ovoid, large, 6.5-10.5 cm. long, back whitish with blue or yellow tinge, densely spotted with dark purple-black spots which run into each other and also a longitudinal brown curved line joining the extremities, base white. This species is very variable and very many colour variations occur — some almost unspotted. It is such a well-known species that it will not present any difficulty in naming. The name is a misnomer since no stripes enter into the pattern. Common, often on sandy bottoms. (Schilder states only ‘frequent’) Panther Cowry Cypraea pantherina Solander subsp. pantherina Description : — Similar to C. tigris in many respects but less ovoid with the ends more produced and the sides vertical and not rounded. This difference in shape is quite constant and very distinct once it is appreciated. Shell about 6-7 cm. long. The colouration of the back is very variable indeed — white with brownish-purple spots is the most frequent, the lowermost spots being orange-chestnut and not blue-black as in C. tigris. Some shells are very different in pattern and even uniformly deep chestnut with only traces of spots showing through. The columellar teeth are finer and more produced than in C. tigris. Dar es Salaam (Dingle, Mohinder Singh). This species is common in the Red Sea and readily obtainable there. It has not been recorded from the E. African coast and these records need confirming by the finding of living specimens. They may have been thrown overboard at Dar or mixed in some way with other specimens. Its mention here must not be taken as a new record for our coasts. 143 VOL. XXII Lynx Cowry Cypraea lynx Linn, subsp. lynx Description : — Shell ovoid 3-4.8 crn. long, ground colour pale buff or yellowish sometimes with a purplish tinge, covered with a mixture of small and large more or less round dark brown spots, base white, edges usually with dark brown spots, grooves between the white teeth orange or orange-red. Abundant. Fallow Deer Cowry Cypraea vitellus Linn, subsp. dama (Perry) Description ; — Shell ovoid 2. 5-4. 5 (rarely 5 or even 6 in specimens from other parts of the world) cm. long, back milky-brown with two rather obscure pale bands, marked with numerous white spots of various sizes. On one side of the shell near the margin there are numerous close vertical brown lines which are distinctive but rather obscure. Base white or whitish. Frequent to rather common. Flesh-Coloured Cowry Cypraea carneola Linn, subsp. sowerhyi (Anton) Description : — Shell very variable in size and shape, 2.5-6 cm. long, back flesh-coloured with 4-5 darker bands, base pale, teeth bright violet. Very common. It is hoped that this paper will enable the public to name any cowry they may find on our coasts. It must be emphasised that if this paper is used for identifying cowries from other coasts mistakes are likely to be made. A good collection of Cowries is now housed in a separate cabinet in the Bird Room of the Coryndon Memorial Museum and is available to the public on request. ADDENDUM Mr. R. C. Wood has informed me that he has collected Erosaria poraria (Linn.) at Mombasa. This species is not recorded by the Schilders for E. Africa and has not been included in this paper. Mr. Wood’s information came too late for the species to be properly included but the following data will allow it to be recognised. Using the key it would run down to couplet 14 and then to 15. It can be differentiated from the species that follow by a couplet to be inserted as follows. — 16* Base of shell and margins pale lilac, mouth whitish, back buff-brown with numerous white spots ring- ed with brown ... Erosaria poraria 16* If base lilac then shell not coloured as above 16 June. 1954. East Ajrican Cowries 144 To the description included in the couplet above may be added — shell about 1.7 cm. long margined on one side, with a few indented pits along the margin. INDEX TO SPECIES When the cowry has been named from the plates or the key the following index will show on which page the fuller description may be found. Since many people prefer to lump all the cowries in the one genus Cypraea the inaex is arranged by specific names only. annulus 137, PI. 3 & 4 limacina 135, PL 1 & 2 arabica 141, PI. 11 & : 12 lynx 143, PL 13 & 14 argus 140, PI. 9 & 10 mappa 141, PL 9 & 10 asellus 138, PI. 1 & 2 marginalis 136, PI. 1 & 2 caput-serpentis 135, PI. 7 8 mauritiana 142, PL 11 & 12 carneola 143, PI. 13 & ; 14 moneta 137, PL 3 & 4 caurica 137, PI. 7 & 8 nebrites 136, PL 5 & 6 chinensis 140, PL 3 & 4 nucleus 135, PL 1 & 2 clandestina 138, PI. 3, 4, & 17 onyx 137, PL 13 & 14 cribraria 140, PI. 7 & 8 owenii 139, t.f.: 3, PL 5, depressa 142, PI. 11 & 12 6 & 17 diluculum 138, PL 5 & 6 pantherina 142, PL 13 & 14 erosa 135, PL 7 & 8 poraria 143. felina 138, PL 3 & 4 scurra 141, PL 9 & 10 fimbriata 138, PL 1 & 2 staphylaea 134, PL 1 & 2 gangranosa 135, PL 1 & 2 stolida 139, PL 5 & 6 globulus 134, t.f.‘ 4, PL 1 &2 talpa 141, PL 9 & 10 helvola 135, PL 5 & 6 teres 139, PL 7 & 8 hirundo 139, t.f.: 3 testudinaria 140, PL 15 & 16 histrio 141, PL 11 & 12 tigris 142, PL 15 & 16 Isabella 140, PL 5 & 6 turdus 136, PI. 3 & 4 kieneri 139, t.f. 3. pi . 5,6 &17 vitellus 143, PL 13 & 14 lamarckii 136, PL 7 & 8 ziczac 138, PL 5, 6 & 17 ,11. •V.' .1''." ‘ PUSTULARIA GLOBULUS GLOBULAR COWRY STAPH YLAEA STAPHV1.AEA GROOVED COWRY PALMADUSTA ASELLUS THREE BANDED COWRY EROSARIA GANGRANOSA GANGRENE COWRY ■) STAPHYLAEA NUCLEUS WRINKLED COWRY STAPHYLAEA LIMM^INA FALSE GROOVED COWRY EROSARIA MARGINALIS RARE MARGINED COWm PALMADUSTA FIMBRIATA ' SMALL TOOTHED COWRY Plate 1 "East African Cowries (Natural Size}" STAPHYLAEA STAPHYLMA GROOVED COWRY PALMADUSTA ASELLUS THREE BANDED COWRY EROSARIA GANGRAMOSA GANGRENE COWRY ]' PALMADUSTA FJMBRIATA > SMALL TOOTHED COWRY PUSTULARIA GLOBULUS GLOBULAR COWRY STAPHYLAEA NUCLEUS WRINKLED COWRY STAPHYl..^A LIMACINA FALSE GROOVED COWRY EROSARIA MARGINALIS rare margined cowry Plate 2 ‘'East African Coteries (Natural Size) lil-M- EROSARiA THRUSH TURDUS cmnmmA chwensisI COWRY VIOLET SROTTE& O yONETARIA y-ONETA IWtOMEY COWRY monetaria RINGED ■ AHMUU comm' PALMADUSTA FEL-INA CAT COWRY ■ PALMADUSTA ,„... ^ ^ ^ Plate 3 “East African Cowries {Natural Size)"' V ) ,v I 1 / \ - ^r" ‘ {, MONETARIA MONETA MONETARIA ANNULUS : MONEY COWRY RINGED ■ COWRY V; ;■ 1 PALMADUSTA FELiNA 1 f CAT COWRY PALMADUSTA CLANDESTINA g FALSE THREE BANDED COWRY Plate 4 “East Afi'ican Cowries {NatiLval Size)” BLASICRURA S TO LIDA Square spotted cowry PALMADUSTA DILUCULUM DARK ZICZAC COWRY EROSARIA HELVOLA STAR COWRY PALMADUSTA ZICZAC PALE ZICZAC COWRY EROSARIA NEBRiTES FALSE MARGINED COWRY LURIA ISABELLA ISABELLINE COWm BLASICRURA KIENERl w H FALSE SWALLOW COWRY BLASICRURA OWENII OWEN’S SWALLOW COWRY Plate 5 '‘East African Cowries (Natural Sizef A B L A SICRUR A S TO LIDA Square spotted cowry PALMADUSTA DILUCULUM DARK Z 1C ZAC COWRY j) EROSArUA NEBRITES FALSE MARGINED COWRY EROSARIA HELVOLA STAR COWRY PALMADUSTA 2ICZAC PALE ZICZAC COWRY LURIA ISABELLA ISABELLINE CCWRY BLASICRURA KlENERl FALSE SWALLC^ COWRY I BLASICRURA OWENII OWEN'S SWALLOW COWRYJ Plate 6 ‘'East Ajrican Cowries {Natural Size)” ‘ ' i ' .i ■ »n ) 1. •. . •; A 1 y ..-fc ( EROSARIA LAMARCKii LAMARCKS COWRY ERRONEA thick- E[ EROSARIA tROSA MARGINED COWRY CRIBRARiA TERE LONG COW EROSARIA CAPUT-SERPENTIS , SNAKE'S HEAD COWRY y Plate 7 ‘'East Africaii Cowries (Natural Size)'' r CRlBRA^iA CRIBRARIA . SPOTTED COWRY EROS ARIA LAMARCK 1 1 LAMARCKS COWRY EROSARIA EROSA MARGINED COWRY ERRONEA- CAORICA ,,, rmm-BBQEB cwry"'’ . CRIBRARIA TERES LONG COWRY EmsmiA CAPUT-SERPENTIS SNAICE'S HEAD COWRY ^ Plate 8 “East African Cowries {Natural Size) ’ MAURITIA MAPPA MAP COWRY TALPARIA TALPA MOLE COWRY TALPARIA ARGUS PHEASANT COWRY Plate 9 “East African Cowries {Natural Size)” MAURITIA SCURRA JESTER COWRY TALPAftIA TALPA ■ mole comm MAURITIA MAPFA ■ MAP comr MAURim SCURRA ■'JESTER COWRY TALPARIA ARCUS PHEASANT COWRY Plate 10 “East African Cowries {Natural Size) -■■'I MAURITIA ARABIGA ARABIC COWRY MAURITIA MAU BLACK HUMPED MAURITIA HiSTRIO HARLEQUIN COWRY Plate 11 “East African Cowries {Natural Size) MAURfTIA ARABICA MAURI TIA MAUWTIANA ARABIC COWRY BLACK HUMPEDXOWRV MAURfTIA DEPRESSA ■ flattened harlequin cowry MAURtTl'A -HISTRIO HARLEQUIN COWRY Plate 12 “East African Cowries {Natural Size)'’ t \ ■ r- ' )■ .r i - I ■n ¥ ■ J r ■■ ':.Vt I ■\ < acutirostre Gunther $ (M.C.Z. 52641) Liwale. 7.xii.50. ? (M.C.Z. 52642) Tunduru. 31.xii.51. 183 Midbody scale-rows 17; ventrals 162-165; subcaudals 22-28. Chin and throat black like the rest of the underside. In both colour and subcaudal counts these snakes agree with acutirostre, but because of their intermediate ventral count I continue to treat these eastern snakes as inter- mediates, besides which it will be noted that quite typical capeme also occurs at Liwale. The stomach of the Tunduru snake held the remains of a skink {Riopa sundevallii). Mehelya nyassae (Gunther) juv. (J (M.C.Z. 52643) Liwale. 21.iv.52. $ (M.C.Z. 52644) Tunduru. 3.ii.52. Midbody scale-rows 15; ventrals 168-176; subcaudals 64-66. For some reason young Nyasa File-Snakes are extremely scarce and the cj measures only 233 (190 -|- 43) mm. I have taken this reptile in Nyasaland and Kenya, but never in Tanganyika though there is a single record from the Usambara Mountains. Philothamnus hoplogaster (Gunther) (J (M.C.Z. 52645) Kilwa. 22.viii.50. 7 cJdj 20 $$ (M.C.Z. 52646-59) Liwale. 13.iii.50-14.iii.52. 2 1 ? (M.C.Z. 52660-1) Ruponda. 25-28.xii.51. 3 $$ (M.C.Z. 52662-3) Tunduru. 29.xii.51-4.ii.52. Midbody scale-rows 15, except in three (M.C.Z. 52651-3) which, though possessing 15 anteriorly, at actual midbody have only 13, 12, and 11 respectively; in this character, therefore, they agree with niacrops though outside the range of that species in the number of their ventrals and subcaudals. Ventrals ofcJcJ, 144-154; of $$, 148-164; subcaudals of 7 ?$ (M.C.Z. 52746-50) Kilwa. 4.iii.48-2.xi.50. 9 ddj 30 $? (M.C.Z. 52751-81) Liwale. 17.i.48-29.iv.53. Midbody scale-rows 17; ventrals 156-170 (dd 157-166; $$ 156-170), average 159.3; subcaudals 69-80 (dd 70-80; $$ 69-80), average 73.6; upper labials 8; preocular 1; postoculars 2 rarely 1 (on right side of M.C.Z. 52751 only); temporals 1+2. Largest d (M.C.Z. 52746), 330 (250 + 80) mm.; largest $ (M.C.Z. 52747), 359 (270 + 89) mm. On October 16 a $ held two elongate eggs measuring 15 X 3.5 and 20 X 3 mm. respectively; on 27th October another $ held two eggs measuring 18 X 4 mm. and 20 X 4 mm.; on 29th May a third snake held four eggs approximately 24 X 6 mm. Stomachs of two snakes examined held geckos, viz. Hemidactylus mercatorius and Lygodactylus p. picturatus. It will be noted that there are no sexual differences reflected in the scale-counts. Counts were made on all but four of the entire series and the averages go far towards reducing the alleged disparity in ventral and subcaudal counts as between nototaenia and its western form viperina. I am inchned to question the old record of 98 subcaudals. However, so far as these 47 snakes are concerned, the difference in dorsal pattern (cf. Bogert, 1940, p. 76, fig. 12) still holds good. Known to the Ngindo as kitandamba, i.e. one found among “ndamdamba” beans, but loosely applied to Psammophis angolensis, Chilorhinophis and Aparallactus sp. Rhamphiophis oxyrhynchus rostratus (Peters) lonides kindly sent me the following note regarding breeding. Writing on 20.xi.49, he re- marks that a scarcely halfgrown Eastern Beaked-Snake had just laid three large cylindrical eggs. On 27.X.50 he says that on the night of 16th October a $ laid four eggs, on the night of the 17th six more, on the night of the 18th two, at midday on the 20th two, at night on the 21st one, and appeared to be still carrying two eggs when he wrote. Known to the Ngindo as njoka uhono, i.e. sesame snake, from the resemblance of its scales to sesame. 186 Psammophylax tritaeniatus tritaeniatiis GUNTHER 18 (M.C.Z. 52812-23) Liwale. 26.iii.50-12.iii.52. 3 (M.C.Z. 52824-5) Songea. x.50-ii.52. 2 (M.C.Z. 52826-7) Tunduru. 9.vi.50 & 3.iii.52. Midbody scale-rows 17j ventrals 139-154; subcaudals 50-59; rostral as broad as (15 examples), or broader than (8) deep; upper labials 7 (right side only of M.C.Z. 52812) or 8, the fourth and fifth entering the orbit, or fifth only (right side only of M.C.Z. 52815); lower labials 9-11, the first 4 or 5 in contact with the anterior sublinguals; preocular 1, rarely 2 (on 5 sides only); postoculars 2; temporals 2 -|- 2 (2 sides), 2-1-3 (35), or 2 -|- 4 (9). Largest S (M.C.Z. 52812), 574 (460 -f 114) mm.; largest $ (M.C.Z. 52813), 629 (510 -|- 119) mm. In December, 1948, lonides collected three hatchlings, apparently just emerged, aU together. On 13th, 15th and 17th December, 1951, he obtained three more in the same general locality. Two of these measured 140 -f- 33 mm. and 140 -|- 39 mm. respectively. Another juvenile, taken in February, 1952, is 170 -fi 41 mm. The largest $ {vide supra) had a Black-lined Plated- Lizard {Gerrhosaurus n. nigrolineatus) in her stomach. In April and December, 1948, Mr. lonides obtained half-a-dozen of these White-bellied Grass- Snakes at Mbwemkuru, in southern Liwale District, at altitudes under 2,000 feet. This discovery of which he wrote me (19.V.49), was largely instrumental in my realization that the dark-belhed montane form {T. v. variabilis) occurring above 5,000 feet in the mountains of southern Tanganyika Mas a recognizable race to which I had consistently misapphed the name T. t. tritaeniatus. Psammophis angolensis Bocage ? 2 33, 1 ? 1 (?, 1 ? 12 33, 14 $9 1 9 1 (?, 1 9 2 99 (M.C.Z. 53114) Gahama. 9.vi.53. (M.C.Z. 52782-4) Kilwa. 12.x.50-21.viii.52. (M.C.Z. 52785-6) Lipumba, Songea. 30-31. v.50. (M.C.Z. 52787-806) Liwale. ll.iv.50-27.iii.53. (M.C.Z. 52807) Msuega. 6.ix.52. (M.C.Z. 52808-9) Ruponda. 26-28.xii.52. (M.C.Z. 52810-1) Tunduru. 5-8. i. 52. Midbody scale-rows 11; ventrals 135-153 (too many of the snakes in the Liwale series are immature to permit of sexing with confidence; if a sexual difference in ventrals does occur it is probably cJc? ? 135-141 and 99? 141-153); subcaudals 56-68 (no sexual difference); upper labials 8, fourth and fifth entering the orbit, except on one side of 5 snakes where it is 7, with the third and fourth entering; lower labials 8, the first 4 in contact with the anterior sublinguals, or 9 (on 3 sides only) with 5 in contact; preocular 1, possibly 2 (in M.C.Z. 52784); postoculars 2; temporals 1 -t- 2, rarely 1 -f 1 (on 6 sides only out of a total of 72). Largest (M.C.Z. 52809), 368 (277 + 91) mm.; largest 9 (M.C.Z. 53114), 430 (315 + 115) mm., the smallest (M.C.Z. 52796), 133 (100 + 33) mm., taken in January as were four of the five measur- ing less than 200 mm. in length. On 6th September, at Msuega, a 9 held 4 elongate eggs ranging from 15-18 x 5 mm. Stomachs of 8 snakes held remains of skinks, in 5 instances identifiable as Ablepharus wahlbergii, and an egg of the latter. Possibly this dwarf form of Psammophis largely confines its diet to wahlbergii, as its gape would scarcely permit of its taking most adult skinks. A young P. angolensis was re- covered by lonides from the stomach of a Burrowing-Adder {Atractaspis b. rostrata). Thelotornis kirtlandii capensis A. Smith lonides states (13.X.50) that he placed an average-sized Cape Vine-Snake, about a yard long, in a box with a fair-sized Chamaeleo d. dilepis. Though the snake had been caught only a few hours before, it promptly seized the chameleon by the back and for several minutes held it, head down- wards, clear of the ground. After the initial struggle which followed its seizure, the chameleon offered little resistance. Eventually the snake worked its jaws along to the head of the chameleon and then swallowed it. Immediately afterwards this same vine-snake struck at a House Gecko {Hemidactylus mabouid) but, missing, did not follow up the attack. 187 lonides was intrigued by the fact that Boomslangs (Dispholidus typus), though habitually preying on chameleons, rarely manage to master so large an example at the first attempt. He had supposed that the potent venom of a boomslang was necessary to overcome the resistance offered by a large chameleon. Yet the vine-snake had managed to gain control very quickly, though apparently the venom of a vine-snake is less toxic. At least lonides supposes so, for he has frequently been bitten by vine-snakes without noticing any after effects, even on occasions when he has allowed them to hang on and chew. One should not overlook the possibility that the rear, venom-conducting teeth may not have come into play if the gape of the particular snake did not permit it. Dispholidus typus (A. Smith) S (M.C.Z. 52828) Songea. 22.xii.52. Midbody scale-rows 19 j ventrals 179; subcaudals 120. Total length 1115 (800 -|- 315) mm. Colour green, the usual livery for males in this general region. On 4th July, 1949, lonides observed a pair of Boomslangs in a tree, intertwined and apparently mated; one was green, the other brown. Females are usually brown, but an examination of the Dispholidus material from all over Africa preserved in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, reveals that this is not a hard and fast rule, lonides writes (20.ix.52) that black Boomslangs, apparently of both sexes, occur at Liwale in addition to the green and brown adults. Besides which there is the juvenile hvery, somewhat similar to that of the Vine-Snake, of grey spotted with pale blue on the nape and back, especially anteriorly. Older juveniles lose the blue spots. One young male, reports lonides, was just assuming the adult colouring, being green with black between the scales anteriorly, while posteriorly it was a lighter green. In December, 1948, lonides wrote that a captive Boomslang, gentle but rather nervous, refused to look at lizards though readily tackling fair-sized chameleons (Chamaeleo d. dilepis). On 20.i.50 he wrote of a nearly six-foot long, dark-olive snake that seized the largest chameleons unhesitatingly. Occasionally disputes arose over the possession of a chameleon, resulting in the contestants embedding their poison fangs in each other and holding on, sometimes for considerable periods. In one instance a larger Boomslang engorged, together with a chameleon, the head and fully six inches of its adversary before the latter managed to extricate itself and withdraw. Apparently no ill-effects were suffered by the vanquished snake for lonides continued to keep it in health for some time afterwards. Occasionally, following fights between Boomslangs, there is a certain amount of haemorrhage but lonides concludes these snakes have developed some degree of immunity to the venom of their own species. On 30.vii.52 he wrote that he understands one of the attendants at Durban Snake Park had succumbed to the bite of a Boomslang, though there was some possibility of hypersensitivity having developed after immunization by antivenene. Calamelaps unicolor unicolor (Reinhardt) 3 9 22 (M.C.Z. 52829-34) Liwale. 23.iii.50-20.i.52. Midbody scale-rows 15; ventrals 218-256 (dd 218-230; 22 241-256); subcaudals 19-29 (dd 27-29; 22 19-23); tail included in total length 10.5-19.1 times (dd 10.5-12.9; 22 16.6-19.1); in this instance sexing is based not on dissection but on the characters set forth in the generic key and original description (cf. Loveridge, 1951a, pp. 194, 196). Largest 2 (M.C.Z. 52832), exceeds previous records by measuring 360 (339 -f- 21) mm. Two of the series had recently swallowed limbless lizards of a species (Amphisbaena ionidesii) also discovered by Mr. lonides. Known to the Ngindo as kitandamba, a name applied also to Hemirhagerrhis, etc., which see. Aparallactus sp. In 1948 Mr. lonides sent me a pair of centipede-eaters from Liwale that were superficially so similar it was difficult to believe they represented two distinct species. However, though with a query, I (1951a, pp. 199-200) correctly assigned them to A. werneri and A. c. capensis. Subsequently I wrote to Mr. lonides soliciting his co-operation in securing a good series of each in order that I might elucidate relationships and more conclusively establish the scope of variation within each species. Mr. lonides responded magnificently, and the following notes — based on a critical examination of over 200 snakes that involved several weeks of study — reveal the distinctness of the two species in question. In my revision (1944q, pp. 181-213) of these little black-headed snakes, I treated lunulatus (then ranging from the Transvaal north to the Belgian Congo and Tanganyika Territory) and concolor (then ranging from Tanganyika Territory north to Eritrea and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan) as full species. However, Witte and Laurent (1947, p. 110) synonymized concolor with lunulatus though stating (p. 113) that such synonymizing was only provisional and that possibly concolor should be recognized as a race of lunulatus. Unfortunately they figured a typical concolor as lunulatus. In the east the subspecific suggestion appears to reflect the situation, but in the southern Sudan the position remains confused for we have typical lunulatus at Torit (6 ex.), Terangore (3 ex.) and Nimule (2 ex.), but concolor also at Nimule (4 ex.) and Magwe (1 ex.) which is about 36 miles south- west of Torit. Until more material from Uganda and northern Kenya is available the area of intergradation cannot be plotted satisfactorily. 189 The lonides material has effectually cleared up a potential problem, however, for he wrote me saying that the snakes I was calling uluguruensis (which was based on a series of all-black adults) appeared to be the same as what the British Museum determined as guentheri (based on a white- collared juvenile). The fine series, representing all ages, obtained by lonides, enabled me (1953e, p. 150) to synonymize uluguruensis with guentheri, which I had to recuscitate from the synonymy of capensis. Nor can guentheri, though so closely related to capensis except in colour {vide infra), be regarded as a race of the Cape Centipede-eater for both occur together at Liwale in miombo savannah. Previously I had supposed that guentheri (as uluguruensis) was the montane-forest representative of the savannah-dwelling capensis, a view which lonides points out (4.vii.50) is unten- able. He was pleased to learn that his suspicions were confirmed, and the white-collared blackish juveniles eventuaUy turn into uniformly black adults. It is surprising to find four members of the one genus occurring at Liwale, especially seeing that the diet of aU appears to be restricted to centipedes. At least one centipede being recovered from one of each of the four species. As Aparallactus species invariably have 15 midbody scale-rows this character has not been checked except in a relatively few individuals. It is hoped that the accompanying synopsis and table of variation will prove useful in aiding others to identify their material with greater ease. Synopsis of Aparallactus occurring at Liwale 1. Postoculars 2 (rarely 1); parietal separated from upper labials by temporals; first lower labial in contact with its fellow behind the mental; head black; nape with a light-edged six-scale-wide, black collar; back and tail pinkish buff to reddish brown; below white; size up to 390 mm. (a $ cotype from the Usambara mountains) . . . werneri. Postocular 1 ; parietal in contact with^ fifth, rarely fourth, upper labial ... 2. 2. First lower labial in contact with its fellow behind the mental; color varying from those with head black, nape with a light-edged black collar; back and tail reticulated pale brown above; below white; to those that are uniform black above and plumbeous below; size up to 525 mm (a $ topotype from Tete, Mozambique 1. lunulatus). First lower labial separated from its fellow behind the mental ... 3. 3. Young are black above with two light-edged collars separated by five to seven scales; back and tail uniform plumbeous or steely blue; below throat white, and body basically so but heavily infuscated with grey. Adults uniformly black above, black or grey below; size up to 400 mm. (an Amani paratype of the syn. uluguruensis) . . . guentheri. Both young and adults coloured much the same as werneri-, size at Liwale up to 315 mm. (410 mm., in Cape Province of the Union of South Africa) . . . c. capensis. DATA DERIVED SOLELY FROM THE lONIDES MATERIAL Species of Aparallactus Post- oculars Parietal and 5th labial First lower labials in Ventrals in (?(? Ventrals in $9 Caudals in SS Caudals in ?$ werneri 2 separated contact 139-150 147-162 38-45 33-41 l. lunulatus 1 contact contact 146-155 153-175 52-60 49-55 guentheri 1 contact separated 137-150 152-163 44-52 42-48 c. capensis 1 contact separated 129-140= 132-158 38-46 36-46 * Separated in only one of the 129 snakes examined. * 152 in a solitary, but unquestionable, (? (M.C.Z. 52007) which in this one respect seems to have a feminine characteristic. 190 Aparallactus werneri Boulenger 27 > 19th 33 33 33 35 33 35 6 33 33 33 33 15 X 9 33 17 X 9 „ 20th 33 53 33 33 33 33 6 33 33 15 X 7 33 16 X 9 „ 23rd 33 33 33 53 33 33 3 33 33 33 16 X 8 33 17 X 7 „ » 25th 33 3) 33 33 33 33 8 33 33 33 33 15 X 8 33 16 X 8 „ 5J 26th 33 33 Ruponda,, ,, 33 8 35 33 35 33 15 X 8 3> 16 X 8 „ 3) 26th 33 33 33 33 33 53 6 33 33 53 33 about 15 X 7 „ 33 26th 33 53 33 35 53 33 6 59 53 33 33 „ 24 X 9 » The intestines were frequently choked with the hard parts of insects (heads of ants, beetles, etc.), but presumably these had been liberated by the digestive juices from the stomachs of amphibia swallowed by the adder. One large millipede, however, may well have been swallowed by the snake. Amphibians were usually too digested for identification, but I was able to recognise the following species: Bufo r. regularise Arthroleptis s. stemdactylus; Phrynohatrachus (?) acridoides and Spelaeophryne methneri. A tick {Amblyomma sp.), at present unidentifiable as to species, was attached to the throat of one Liwale viper. Defilippi’s Night-Adder is known as kihambi to the Ngindo {fide lonides). Bitis arietam arietans (Merrem) 6 foetuses (M.C.Z. 52947-9) Tunduru. 2&10.i.52. Five, dated 2nd January, are still in the foetal membranes, a (M.C.Z. 52948) measuring 205 180 + 25) mm.; the $ (M.C.Z. 52949), dated 10th January, measures 206 (190 + 16) mm. All are from a brood of 57 reported by lonides as present in a single $. lonides, writing on 8.V.50, says that a Puff Adder killed at Mandera, British Somaliland, “which must have measured over four feet,” held the horns of an adult S dikdik whose partially digested remains filled the stomach. Lipili or lipiri is the Mwera, not the Ngindo, name writes Mr. lonides. AMPHIBIA CAECILIIDAE Schistometopum gregorii (Boulenger) (J (M.C.Z. 27901) Ruvu Ferry. 25.V.51. As Ruvu Ferry is only a few miles north of Bagamoyo, in the Eastern Province of Tanganyika Territory, this record constitutes a noteworthy southward extension of the range for a species heretofore known only from north of the Tana River in Kenya Colony. Body annuli 117 (primaries only; 137 with secondaries); midbody diameter 8.5 mm., contained 35.3 times in the total length of 300 nun. Both stomach and intestines appeared to contain only mud. 195 BUFONIDAE Bufo carens A. Smith 4 $$ (M.C.Z. 27902-3) Kilwa. 10-21.viii.50. cJ (M.C.Z. 27904) Liwale. 12.iii.49. $ (M.C.Z. 27905) Songea. 15.V.50. The customary pair of dark lumbar spots of the Red Toad are absent in this rj, which measures 78 mm. from snout to anus. Bufo regularis regularis Reuss ? (M.C.Z. 27906) Kilwa. 12.viii.50. $ (I. 2339) Liwale. 16.iv.50. This is the widespread Square-marked Toad originally described from Cairo. A young one was recovered from the stomach of a night-adder {Camus defiUppii). Bufo anotis Boulenger ? (M.C.Z. 27907) Kilwa. 25.viii.50. This Earless Toad, taken during dry weather at the edge of a small lake, is new to Tanganyika Territory; for the toads from western Tanganyika that, in 1925, I erroneously referred to as anofit I subsequently described as a new species {ushoranus). The Kilwa specimen, 35 mm. in length, has been compared with nine topotypes of anotis from Chirinda Forest, Southern Rhodesia. It differs only in that its rich gamboge yellow undersurface lacks the markings which are present in all Chirinda toads, though in two of them the markings are reduced to one or two brown flecks in the pectoral region. RHACOPHORIDAE Chiromantis xerampelina Peters 4 (M.C.Z. 27908) Kilwa. 1 l-21.viii.50. 1 (I. 2432) Liwale. 17.vii.50. 2 (M.C.Z. 27909) Tunduru. 8.1.50. The two largest $$ (M.C.Z. 27908-9) are only 68 and 70 mm. long. Afrixalus fornasinii fornasinii (Bianconi) 13 (M.C.Z. 27910-1) Kilwa. 12-25.viii.50. Ten are typical, having an anteriorly acuminate, broad, brown, vertebral stripe; the backs of the other three are uniform, thus agreeing with Megalixalus fornasinii var. wiicolor Boettger (1913) which Noble (1924) referred to the synonymy. This disposition I have consistently sup- ported, for such variants occur in most large series. Consequently I disagree with Laurent’s (1951c, p. 24) recent revival of unicolor subspecifically for a $ from Gazi, Kenya Colony, whose vertebral stripe was reduced to an oblong spot. Nor can I concur with Laurent’s action in resuscitating loveridgii Procter (1920) as a subspecies of fornasinii to whose synonymy I referred it. Length of largest, a $, 36 mm. Hyper olius concolor tuberilinguis A. Smith $ (M.C.Z. 27912) Tunduru. 8.i.50. Length 29 mm. Recently I (1953f, p. 354) have discussed this race at considerable length, stating that I regard Zambezi examples ofcitrinusGu'aih.tT,?in.dH.sansibaricusloveridgei{C3kUTcnt), 1947, from Kitaya, Ruvuma River, Tanganyika Territory, as synonyms. Hyperolius pimcticulanis subsp. ? (M.C.Z. 27913) Tunduru. a.i.50. 196 From posterior border of eye to the anus the light lateral band is edged above by a very narrow brown line, while below, from groin to eye, by a very broad brown band which is continued from front of eye to nostril as a relatively narrow stripe. Gravid. Length 28 mm. Hyperolius parkeri rovuniae Loveridge $ (M.C.Z. 27914) Kilwa. 25.viii.50. Length of adult, snout to anus, 23 mm. RANIDAE Rana galameusis bravana Peters 3 juv. (M.C.Z. 27915) Kilwa. 25.viii.50. Lengths are from 35 to 38 mm. Rana oxyrhynchus oxyrhynchus A. Smith 7 (M.C.Z. 27916) Kilwa. ll.viii.50. 3 ? (M.C.Z. 27917) Tunduru. 9.vi.50. Largest $$ from above localities are 52 and 48 mm. respectively. Each frog has been in- dividually tested and found to conform to the typical (lowland) race as defined in my (1953f, p. 369) key to the amphibia of Nyasaland. Rana mascareniensis mascareniensis D. ET B. 3 juv. (M.C.Z. 27918) Kilwa. ll.viii.50. Only 23-29 mm. As with the preceding and following species of Rana these frogs have been tested by the aforementioned key. Rana mascareniensis uzungwensis Loveridge $ (M.C.Z. 27919) Liwale. 18.vu.50. Length 41 mm. Rana ansorgei BoULENGER $ (M.C.Z. 27920) Kilwa. 21.viii.50. S, 3 (M.C.Z. 27921-2) Tunduru. 6-8.i.50. The above records reveal the distribution of this species as trans-African (Benguela to Kilwa) in these latitudes. Tibio-tarsal articulation of the adpressed hind limb reaches eye (Kilwa), end of snout or just beyond (Tunduru); length of tibia more or less than half the length from snout to anus; first, second, third and fifth toes with two phlanges free of web, fourth toe with three phlanges free. Length of^J (M.C.Z. 27921), 45 mm., of gravid $ (M.C.Z. 27922), 48 mm. Rana ornata ornata (Peters) $ (M.C.Z. 27923) Kilwa. l.iii.50. The type of this handsome frog came from I'aita, in Kenya, and I am anxious to obtain examples from there, even more so of the very similar Rana inacrotympanum from west of the Juba River, Gallaland. No one has obtained any of the latter since it was described over 40 years ago and 197 I very much doubt whether frogs from the Northern Frontier District are really distinct. Un- fortunately these frogSj characterized by two longitudinal white lines on an otherwise black throat, being burrowers, appear only for a brief period at the onset of the rains. Rana adspersa edulis (Peters) (J $ (M.C.Z. 27924) Tunduru. 8.i.50. Lengths of 140 and 145 mm. respectively, but the sexing of the deviscerated $ was done by the collector. Mr. lonides also informs me that these bullfrogs are called bumi (pi. mabumi) by the Ngindo in distinction to the Swahili chura which is applied to frogs in general by the Ngindo. In their eagerness to feed, these voracious bullfrogs will gulp down almost anything. The stomach of one held a piece of bark measuring 29 X 23 mm., a stout leaf 35 X 12 mm., and numerous twigs of which the largest was 23 x 1.5 mm. In addition to the usual mass of indeterminate insect remains, my colleague Dr. P. J. Darlington recognized the 45 mm. antennae of a cerambycid, a longicom, and a hard-shelled tenebrionid. Phrynobatrachus acridoides (CoPE) 1 (I. 1716) Tunduru. 8.i.50. The state of preservation of this 25 mm. frog leaves its specific determination slightly conjectural. Stomach distended by ants, one of which was apparently a driver (Dorylus sp.). One Phrynobatrachus was recovered from the stomach of a night-adder (jCausus defilippii). Hemisus marmoraturn marmoratum (Peters) 3 (I. 2281-2, 2300) Liwale. 25-28.iv.50. Lengths are from 21-33 mm. BREVICIPITIDAE Spelaeophryne methneri Ahl $, juv. (M.C.Z. 27925-6) Litumba. 30-31. v.50. $ (I. 2299) Liwale. 28.iv.50. A young one was present in the stomach of a night-adder (Causus defilippii). Litumba is at 3,900 feet in the Matengo Highlands of Songea District, so that the capture of these Scarlet-snouted Frogs by Mr. lonides extends the known range considerably to the southwest. One stomach held small beetles in addition to numerous ants’ heads. The fat bodies were very distended as if in preparation for aestivation. Length of 48 mm., of ?, 55 mm. Diameter of largest ova in the ? almost 2 mm. Phrynomerus hifasciatus bifasciatus (A. Smith) * ... t -‘Jf ■ ■■ ■' ..M: , .7 - 'ti 199 AN APPRECIATION MAJOR KENNETH DE PLANTA BEATON Ken Beaton, known to a wide circle of friends as a man of many attributes, started life in Blantyre, Nyasaland, in 1905, where his father was General Manager of tlie African Lakes Corporation. At the age of two he went to Scotland, and again moved with his family to Kenya in 1910. They hved on a small farm near Nairobi, where it was Ken’s particular task, even at this young age, to tend cattle, horses, donkeys, dogs, cats, poultry, and a variety of young wild animals, which he also regarded as his friends. Educated first at the Government School, Nairobi, and later at Melville College, Edinburgh, he returned to Kenya at the age of 19 to be apprenticed to Major Dunbar of Sotik, on a coffee farm. Here was a hfe which Ken really enjoyed, for it gave him sufficient leisure to pursue his great interest in wild life, to learn the ways of the big beasts of the Chepalunga forest, and to go on many a safari. Ken’s father then purchased a farm in Sotik, and imported a couple of hounds and a hunter, which enabled him to become a great enthusiast of the Sotik Hunt, and later M.F.H. The war period saw him at once in the K.A.R., where he took part in the Abyssinian campaign and the battle of Gondar, later to be stationed in Madagascar, and finally as O.C. Troops, Zanzibar. On demobilization he found that his farm had been ruined by lack of adequate supervision, and in 1946 he joined the Kenya National Parks as warden of the Nairobi National Park. His great love and knowledge of wild animals shone through his delightful weekly articles in the “East African Standard” and enabled so many readers to know some of the denizens of the Nairobi National Park almost personally and by name. Having so successfully completed the initial development of the Nairobi National Park, particularly through its difficult stages, he was then seconded to the Uganda Government to undertake the development of the Uganda National Parks, where he later became Director and Chief Warden. With his great knowledge and resourcefulness, in a remarkably short time he brought the Queen Elizabeth National Park forward to a point where in 1954, he had the honour of entertaining Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edin- burgh, as guests of the Park. It was indeed a tragedy that even before 1954 was out, Ken Beaton was no longer spared to fulfil further plans he had in mind for the development of the Murchison Falls Park. His many friends and all lovers of animals will always feel a certain sadness at the loss of Ken Beaton, but they will remember him as a man with a charming smile, a friendly disposition, and good company under any conditions. His work, both in Kenya and Uganda, will stand as a memorial to one who devoted so much zeal to the protection of wild animals. M.H.C. 200 BOOK REVIEWS “The Freshwater Mollusks of Uganda and Adjacent Territories,” by G. Mandahl Barth, d.sc. Annales du Musee Royal du Congo Beige, Octavo Series, Science Zoologiques Vol. 32, pp. 207 and 05 text figs. 7x11 inches, Tervuren 1954. (Paper covers.) It would be very difficult to overestimate the importance of this volume. It is the first general study of a group of snails for a whole territory to appear since Von Marten’s “Beschalte Weichthiere” nearly 60 years ago. The main importance of the paper does not, however, rest there. A very large number of papers have appeared on the Mollusca of East Africa — several hundred in fact, most of which merely describe a large number of new species based mainly on the shells alone. In a group like the Mollusca where most of the classification depends on the soft anatomy, the chaos resulting from this is unbelievable, particularly in a group where the shells are similar. For instance several dozen Helicariom have been described only a few of which had their anatomy examined at the time of description. Until each species has been re-collected in the type locahty and dissected, it will not even be possible to say how many genera are represented in the group, let alone arrange the species. In the Freshwater Mollusca there are several genera where, from a study of the shells alone, every different author has suggested a different means of classification. Moreover, these very genera contain species with extremely polymorphic shells. Unfortunately this holds true particularly for those genera (Bulinus and Biomphalaria) which are important vectors of the Schistosoma spp. which cause Bilharzia. Many recent papers have appeared concerning the shells. One author sinks the lot into two species, another recognizes a dozen or so^ still another recognizes a dozen but this time a different dozen and also disagrees with the other’s names. It is little wonder that the medical profession are a little dazed about all this. Mandahl Barth has based his main conclusions on anatomy and his arrangement of the species is therefore, I think, much more trustworthy than any other previous attempts. Dr. Mandahl Barth was brought up in the rigorous Danish anatomical “school” so well exemphfied by the works of the late Dr. C. M. Steenberg. This book is recommended to all the serious students of malacology and tropical disease workers as a profoundly accurate book. It is certainly not the last word on the subject by any means and parts are out of date already. For instance Biomphalaria adowensis and B. ruppellii are probably conspecific and not separate species as treated in his book. So much depends on seeing the original types which in a polymorphic species are difficult to interpret. Mandahl Barth deals with 126 species and subspecies which are adequately illustrated by line drawings. He has found it necessary to erect three new genera in the Planorbidae and quite a number of new species and subspecies. Some of his names may be commented on — Physopsis is treated as a subgenus of Bulinus — aU the “Unios” are treated as Caelatura. One unfamihar change which, however, seems plausible is the segregation of the African Viviparus into a genus Bellamya (actually erected long ago by Jousseaume). The anatomical evidence given is rather striking but it will be a change which will take many years to become accepted. I have also found the species and subspecies of this genus accepted by Mandahl Barth rather difficult to separate and think that further study over a wider range will reduce them. The book is written in English, a concession which many continental writers make, knowing full well our painful ignorance of their languages. It is well printed on good paper as is usual with the publications of Belgian Museums, but there are rather numerous misprints. I think a deep debt of gratitude is due to the Belgian Museums in post-war days for coming to the rescue of scientists looking for pubhshers. Many publications (including some of my own) have been produced in record time at great expense to themselves. B.V. (Note; It is proposed shortly to place on view in the museum a smaU exhibit of Bilharzia- carrying snails.) “The Veronicellidae of Africa (Mollusca Pulmonata),” by Dr. Lothar Forcart. Annales du Musee Royal du Congo Beige, Octavo Series, Science Zoologiques Vol. 23, pp. 110 and 5 plates. 7x11 inches, Tervuren 1953. (Paper covers.) The Veronicellidae (or Vaginulidae as they were once better known) are extremely interesting 201 and rather attractive slugs. This revision of all the African species is a valuable study which must have entailed a considerable amount of work. I am not qualified to discuss Forcart’s con- clusions since I know nothing about the anatomy of the group, but I feel he may have erred on the side of “lumping”. Seven taxa are recorded from our area and may easily be identified by anyone who has this book and is mildly skilled with dissecting instruments. The retouched photographs illustrating the anatomy are novel, but I am not convinced that they convey as much as a line drawing, although they undoubtedly give a more accurate picture of actual shape. The photographs of the beasts themselves are excellent and reproduced as only collotype can reproduce with every original detail faithfully depicted. Unfortunately external features are rather useless in this group as in most slugs. Dr. Forcart’s kindness in using the Enghsh Language has led to inaccuracies which would not otherwise have occurred — the English is quaint and in places quite difficult to understand and misprints are rather common. This does not, however, detract from the value of this addition to the books on African Mollusca. B.V. “Exploration Hydrobiologique du Lac Tanganyika (1946-47).” Resultats Scientifiques Vol. Ill Fascicle 1. Lamellibranches, by Eugene Leloup, pp. 154 and 8 plates and innumerable text figures, 10 x 13 inches. Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. Brussels 1950 Vol. Ill Fascicle 4 Gasteropodes by Eugene Leloup, pp. 274 and 13 plates, 1953. This large quarto work can only be described as sumptuous on a scale associated with the previous century only. The text figures are in hundreds and the plates illustrate a very large number of shells. These two works (which I have had bound together) are essential for any student of African Mollusca and will enable any shell from the Lake to be named. The number of works dealing with or touching on the mollusca of this lake is now over a hundred! This great interest is due to the fact that a certain section of the snails (“thalassic”) in the lake have a truly incredible resemblance to marine shells. This led to the now discarded theory of an inland Jurassic sea. It is now believed that the resemblance is due to parallel evolution in a very ancient body of water. Various conchologists, notably J. R. Bourguignat, multiplied the number of genera and species occurring in the lake to an alarming extent. He even split one species into two genera and over a dozen species. This has complicated matters. I rather feel that Leloup has erred in precisely the opposite direction. In Edgaria nassa forma grandis he has for example compressed dozens of species formerly distributed among three genera. Apart from figuring many radulae I believe this sinking has not been done with any anatomical basis though I admit that it is the result of examination of a vast amount of shells. His treatment of the non-thalassic Planorbidae etc. is similar and directly contradicts the conclusions of Ranson and Mandahl Barth, to mention only two anatomists. Everyone interested in shells should have this work since one can give a name to anything one may find in Lake Tanganyika. It is written in an easy French style easily understood even by poor linguists. B.V. “Etudes sur les Mollusques de I’Afrique Centrale et des Regions Voisines. I Vertiginidae et Valloniidae,” by Dr. W. Adam, pp. 725-817 with 25 text figures; extracted from Volume Jubilaire Victor Van Straelen Tome II. 4vo. Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 1954. This very painstaking revision deals with a group of mostly minute shells, some only 1-2 mm. in length. It is mainly concerned with the Belgian Congo but deals with many species occurring in East Africa. The figures which are the work of Mme J. van Melderen-Sergysels are exquisitely executed. B.V. (The reviewer regrets that he does not know the price of any of the works mentioned since aU were complimentary copies. They are obtainable from the museums and institutes concerned.) 202 “Birds of Arabia,” by Colonel R. Meinertzhagen. (Oliver and Boyd, 1954. One voL, pp. 624, plus 19 coloured plates, 9 photographs and many text figures and maps. £4. 4. 0.) Books describing the birds of a given region can usually be grouped into three classes, each intended for a certain type of reader: (a) those designed for the ornithologist-collector; (b) those designed for the field-watcher, and (c) those designed for both. As an example of class (a), take Jackson’s “Birds of Kenya and Uganda” — features: large size, with a limited number of coloured plates containing few birds per plate, and with detailed keys for the identification of specimens in the hand. For class (fe), take Peterson’s “Birds of Europe” — features: small size, with many coloured plates containing many birds per plate, and with de- tailed notes for the identification of birds in the field. For class (c), take Praed and Grant’s “African Handbook” — features: medium size, with many coloured plates containing several birds per plate, and with abbreviated specimen-keys and notes for field-identification. On the whole I feel that the “hybrid” class (c) is at a disadvantage in trying to combine two subjects, each of which requires individual treatment; therefore, I think that classes (a) or (b) are preferable. The volume now under review is a very fine example of class (a). One of its most striking features is the quality of the coloured plates, mostly done by Mr. D. M. Reid-Henry. They are wonderful ! Mr. Henry has few, if any, equals in the way he makes his birds look alive. Take, for instance, his drawing of an Olive Thrush (PI. VI): the bird is simply overflowing with vitality! The Arabian backgrounds to several of the plates are strikingly beautiful also : look, for instance, at the blazing desert sunset in the Lammergeier picture (PI. XI), or the cool mountain valley in the Green Pigeon picture (PI. XIV). The book would be well worth buying on account of the plates alone, but the letterpress is excellent also. Colonel Meinertzhagen is one of our most original (as well as distinguished) ornithologists, and a speciality of his, which cannot be too much praised, is to delve into what one might call the byways of ornithology, concerning which he launches into fascinating little digressions here and there. For instance, I will mention some topics discussed in the book, from a summary at p. 72: bird collisions; fainting and feigning death; love of sweet food; pattering and puddling; variation in colour of eggs; animals drinking salt water; and recognition by birds of the Sabbath and the gun. You could hardly have a more catholic list than this! In the course of the introduction a number of major topics are discussed in detail, of which the most interesting, to me, was on desert coloration. The author, whose experience of the subject must be unsurpassed, feels that the pale-buff “desert colour” possesses, as its primary advantage, the maximum capacity to neutralize the heat of the sun, and therefore, to keep the birds cool. He does not deny that desert coloration also possesses a protective value against predators, but thinks that this is a minor advantage as compared with protection against climate. The detailed list of birds seems to be very good too. Included in this there are some useful reviews (with maps, not confined to Arabia), of certain species, such as Pycnonotus capensis, the African Bulbul, and Streptopelia tiirtur, the Turtle Dove. With reference to the latter, it is inter- esting to note that the author considers our East African species X. lugens to be a race of turtur — partly, I gather, on the grounds that the calls of the two birds are “precisely similar”. Both calls are well known to me and I would agree that there is a striking similarity in pitch and time, but they are not identical — higens has a deep, growly song which is nearly an octave deeper than the shrill, purring song of turtur. In view of this fact, the question whether lugens may still be regarded as a race of turtur requires reconsideration. Both the letterpress of this book, and also the plates, are reproduced to perfection, for which the publishers, Messrs. Ohver and Boyd, deserve every credit. M.E.W.N. 203 “I Drank the Zambezi,” by Arthur Loveridge. (Lutterworth Press, London: 1954: pp. 287, many photographic illustrations. 15/-.) Those who have read Mr. Loveridge’s two previous books, “Many Happy Days I’ve Squandered” and “Tomorrow is a Holiday” will be pleased to welcome this third popular work to their bookshelves. Forsaking Tanganyika on this occasion the author describes, in his lucid and easy-to-read style, his safari in Nyasaland during 1948 and 1949. The purpose of the “ulendo” was to collect natural history specimens for Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. His adventures are related in a form which retains the reader’s attention throughout the book, whether the reader be interested in Natural History or merely in travel. The reviewer was most interested — and somewhat amused — to note that Mr. Loveridge makes no mystery of either Mlanje Mountain or of the Nyika Plateau, as does the author of another book whose path Mr. Loveridge crossed when on his journey! Mr. Loveridge knew and loved Africa and the African in the period prior to 1 939 : his reaction to and comments on the post-war changes are both reasonable and pointed. This is a book every- one interested in Africa must own. N.M. 204 LETTERS to the EDITOR The Editor, The Journal of the East African Natural History Society. Sir, I was most gratified to read Sir Charles Belcher’s generous and detailed review of “A Check List of the Birds of Nyasaland”, by myself, in Journ. E.A. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. xxii, no. 3 (95), 1954, pp. 124-127. His contribution to it, both indirectly by his own book on the birds of Nyasa- land, and directly by the mass of breeding data which he provided me with, cannot be over-emphasized. There are a few points arising therefrom which seem worthy of further mention : — (a) Page 125, final paragraph: The reference to Belcher’s “Birds of Nyasaland” and to Roberts’ “Birds of South Africa” are not to pages but to the serial number allocated to the relevant species. This is explained in section 2 of the Introduction. (fc) Page 126, fourth paragraph: I realized that omission of authors’ names for both species and races might arouse comment. Thus see also Macdonald, “African Affairs”, vol. 53, no. 211, 1954, p. 172, and Vincent, “Ostrich”, 1954, p. 102. The explanation for this is of course given in section 2 of the Introduction, i.e. economy of space. The “umlaut” was inserted in the original typescript wherever applicable. But the printer found its retention impracticable. Nevertheless, I feel that the printer has carried out his share of the task extremely well. ic) Page 126, fifth paragraph. The reference 90 to local breeding of the Osprey is to Nyasa Journ. vol. 4, no. 2, 1951, p. 50, and reads as follows : — “African fishermen call the Fish- Eagle ‘nkwazi’, and the Osprey ‘chakame’, and I have been told by those on Likoma Island that the latter nests there during the dry season, in baobab trees. Mr. R. C. Wood has in fact seen an Osprey’s nest, in which there were young, at Chiromo, on the River Shire. Unfortunately he has lost the detailed notes, including the date, which he made at the time, now more than thirty years ago.” Sir Charles would doubtless agree that Mr. Wood is an entirely reliable observer. It is worth mentioning that I have recently (13th December 1953) collected at Bulaya, Mporokoso district. Northern Rhodesia, a Claniator jacobinus containing a fully developed egg. This is turquoise blue, not white, in colour; size approximately 21 19 mm. (see also Belcher, “Nature in East Africa”, ser. 2, no. 2, 1949, p. 17). The parent is white below, with chin, throat and chest tinged slightly grayish. A clutch of three similarly coloured turquoise eggs of Turdoides leucopygia was collected in the same locality on 27th October, 1953. Ceutropus senegalensis and C. tnonachus (notwithstanding Verheyen’s observations in “Exploration du Parc National de I’Upemba. Oiseaux,’’ 1953, p. 323, I still prefer to follow Chapin, “The Birds of the Belgian Congo,” vol. 2, 1539, p. 211, see reference 134 in my Check List, in regarding C. cupreicaudus as a distinct species) have a wide area of overlap in the Ethiopian region, according to the distributions as given, for example, by Chapin op. cit. The reference to C. s. burchellii under no. 212 is certainly not clear. The sentence in question would read better as follows : — “Habitat as last, and indistinguishable from C. s. burchellii in field.” C. senegalensis fiecki is of course easily distinguishable from C. superciliosus loandae even at a considerable distance by the absence of a superciliary streak and by the black rather than brown colouring on the head. In these respects C. superciliosus burchellii resembles fiecki rather than loandae, even though it is conspecific with, and, as indicated, intergrades with loandae. The calls of Caprimulgus p. poliocephalus and C. p. guttifer are practically, if not entirely, identical. Reference 128 in the Check List, i.e., “Ostrich,” 1952, p. 151, is the key to this. I have heard this mellow and beautiful call in northern Nyasaland, at Nyeri and Ngong in Kenya, and in southern Abyssinia (“Ibis”, 1945, p. 508). On taxonomic con- siderations, too, I have no doubt that C. p. poliocephalus and C. p. guttifer are conspecific. 205 The name “Narina” was first given to the commoner of the two Trogons by its dis- coverer, Levaillant, and is derived from a Hottentot beauty for whom he professed great admiration; see Stark & Sclater, “The Birds of South Africa,” vol. iii, 1903, p. 122. In regard to Anthus leucophrys and A. vaalensis, so far as I am aware, no striking difference of behaviour, voice, etc. has been definitely found between the two. This would have been perhaps better put down as another of the doubtful cases, as that of the Yellow Wag- tails which Sir Charles mentions. I had not had the opportunity to investigate the question of the correct specific name for Pycnonotus. In this and other such cases I followed Mackworth Praed and Grant’s nomenclature. I only deviated from this on the basis of personal experience, or where some other author had given reasons for using a different name which seemed over-ridingly convincing to me. Greater emphasis might have been laid on this in section 2 of the Introduction. C. W. BENSON. C/o Game and Tsetse Department, P.O. Box 72, LUSAKA, Northern Rhodesia. 20th July, 1954. MEAT-EATING DUIKERS Sir, In the Journal, p. 73, antea, Mr. Merrell Dalton asks if any readers have known of a duiker eating meat. The following may therefore interest him. During the Campaign in East Africa in 1916 I was at General Smuts’ Headquarters and one of my subalterns had for a time a tame duiker that used to rehsh scraps of meat. The Africans of many tribes have told me during the last 40 odd years that duikers stalk and eat fowls. Whilst serving in Uganda over 30 years ago the R.C. Bishop confirmed this. He said he was losing fowls, so one night left his car facing the fowl-run, and on hearing a commotion, switched on the headlights and found a duiker was the cause of the trouble. On one occasion when out shooting in Kenya I observed a duiker stalking guinea fowl. But the latter were too wary and the duiker did not secure one. I have many times told the Africans to prove to me that duikers attack fowls, and they have since done so. About dusk some years ago they called me to witness a stalk. The duiker approach- ed stealthily on the feeding fowls and we waited and watched. Eventually it was close enough to seize one with a rush and I shot the duiker in the act with the fowl in its mouth, though not much hurt. H. F. STONEHAM Director (Stoneham Museum, Kitale) Printed by African Standard Ltd. Nairobi •V V r.. r W