ABSTRACT
N E C E SSIT Y for rapid marching interferes more with the study of the habits of animals than with any other branch of a naturalist’s work. While traversing a country at the rate of fifteen miles a day, there are few opportunities for the quiet observation of animals or of their habits. Besides, in the present condition of our knowledge of the African fauna, it is generally more profitable to collect than to observe ; so to avoid risking the loss of an animal, it is often necessary to shoot or capture it at once, instead of quietly watching it at work or at play. Unfortunately, too, the only groups of animals of which I have any special knowledge are marine. For these reasons the present chapter contains only a series of somewhat disjointed notes and observations.
