SUDAN BIRDS

INTRODUCTION.
It is questionable whether any introduction is called for here, since
this is but the concluding half of a work the first part of w T hieli appeared
in 1926. The same style and plan has been adopted as in Part I, but
for the sake of convenience the notes on systematic keys and abbreviations
used which were given in the introduction of that part are also included
in Fart II. Over four years have elapsed since Part I of this Catalogue
was published. For this delay my only excuse is that its preparation
lias been limited entirely to my spare time, and for a great portion of this
period I have been located where neither library facilities nor specimens
were available to me. A collecting trip to East Africa and Angola during
1930 also further delayed the work.
Now that it is completed, perhaps a few words regarding the way
this Catalogue came into being may not be without some interest. Early
in 1922, soon after I joined the entomological stall of the Sudan
Government, I commenced a list of Sudan birds, with short notes on the
status and range of each, and to this I added from time to time " keys "
adapted from standard works on African birds. This list was intended
solely as an aid to my studies on the bird-life of what was then, for mc>
a terra incognita. Much travel, and a consequent lack of library facilities,
prevented my completing the list, but what was lost on the one hand
was gained on the other, for I gradually became familiar with the birds
in life, and, through collecting specimens, I was later able to learn their
names. All this time I felt the need (which every interested Official
in the Sudan must feel) for a reliable, more or less popular handbook
to the bird-life of the country.
On being posted to Khartoum in 1924, for service in connection with
the Lord Kitchener Memorial Medical School, I was also appointed
Deputy Curator of the Museum. I now found myself confronted with the
problem of obtaining adequate labels for the fine mounted series of local
birds on exhibition. These had to be printed, and it occurred to me that
at the same time, if suitably planned, a very useful local list could be
published for little additional cost. The scheme w r as submitted to Mr.
Harold II. King, Curator of the Museum, who fully endorsed it, and after
some discussion of details the present plan and style was adopted. My
former list, although incomplete, was now called into service again, and,
with some alteration, became the foundation of the present list.
Soon after the completion of the manuscript of the first part I tendered
my resignation to the Sudan Government, but before leaving the country
3 lA