OCR Text |
Show 1891.] BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA. 303 been acquired through their means. I will therefore say a few words upon the general state of our knowledge of the Zoology of Nyassa-land. So far as we can tell from our present very imperfect knowledge of the subject, the fauna of Nyassa-land will be best considered in three divisions :-(1) the Basin of the Shire, (2) the Shire Highlands, (3) the Basin of Lake Nyassa. As regards our knowledge of its Zoology, the following are the principal authorities to be referred to:- 1. Bianconi's ' Specimina Zoologica Mosambicana,' published at Bologna in parts from 1850-67. Bianconi was Professor of Zoology in the University of Bologna, and described various specimens from the collections sent home to him by Fornasini from Mozambique, in a somewhat antiquated fashion. No complete account of the animals of any branch of zoology is given in his work. 2. Peters's ' Naturwissenschaftliche Reise nach Mossambique,' in four volumes, published at Berlin from 1852 to 1882. This is the most important work that has yet appeared upon the Zoology of South-eastern Africa. Our former Foreign Member, Dr. W . Peters of Berlin, passed six years at various stations in Portuguese East Africa from 1842 to 1848, and made excellent collections in every branch of zoology. Peters, though always hard at work, was somewhat dilatory in publication, and only succeeded in getting out the four volumes above mentioned, though others were in contemplation, and in fact had been partly prepared at the time of his death in 1883. The first volume, published in 1852, gives us an excellent account of the Mammals of Mozambique ; the second, intended to contain the Birds, was never published ; the third, relating to the Reptiles and Amphibians, was issued in 1882 ; the fourth, containing the Freshwater Fishes, in 1868. These three volumes were prepared by Peters himself. The fifth volume, devoted to the Insects and Myriapods, was written, except as regards the last-named group, by Peters's colleagues in the Berlin Museum. 3. Finsch and Hartlaub's ' Vogel Ost-Afrikas,' published at Leipzig in 1870. This volume, which forms a portion of Von der Decken's ' Reisen in Ost-Afrika,' is the only general systematic work on tbe Birds of Eastern Africa yet published. But the discoveries and explorations since made have been so numerous, that Finsch and Hartlaub's work, though nearly exhaustive at the time it was issued, has now become more or less antiquated, and much requires to be replaced by a new publication. 4. Dr. Kirk's " List of the Mammals of Zambesia," published in our 'Proceedings' for 1864. Dr. Kirk gives notes on 67 species of Mammals met with during his various journeys up the Zambesi and Shire to Lake Nyassa and on the coast of Mozambique. 5. Dr. Kirk's article " O n the Birds of the Zambesi Region," published in ' The Ibis ' for 1864 (p. 307). Dr. Kirk gives notes on 150 species of which he collected examples 21* |