TO TOUR AFRICAN WILDS

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17837, 9 October 1929, Page 13

TO TOUR AFRICAN WILDS

ON QUEST FOR SNAKES. PrERC'E JUNGLES FOR MUSEUM SPECIMENS. A one-man expedition in search of specimens of natural history in the heart of the African Jungle will leave the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, it was learned from the museum offices, says a New York paper. Arthur Loveridge, assistant curator of reptiles and amphibians at Harvard, will make this arduous trip and will not return before the end of the summer of 1930. Mr Loveridge will centre his activities in the neighbourhood of the Livingstone Mountains, about 300 miles south of the spot where Stanley and Livingstone met. In this range he expects to find traces of animal life which show connections with both the 0011011*1' further north and the fauna of South Africa. In addition to the collection of reptiles and amphibians, he will endeavour to gather information concerning their life histories, foes and parasites. He will enter the country at Dares Salaam, and will proceed part of the way by railway to Morogoro. After leaving Iringa, he will engage bearers to take him by safari to the Utschungwe Mountains, which are particularly interesting for three types of chameleons found there.

Employment of Natives. In the Nlulguru Range, and in the trip to the Livingstone Mountains, the nature of the country will require Mr Loveridge to make his way from village to village by means of the labour of several score of bearers. As he . progresses from district to district, he will allow old bearers to reburn to their homes and hire new ones, thus constantly replacing his force of helpers. In making his collections, Mr Loveridge will employ natives for the work to be done. He has discovered from previous trips that he can arouse the interest of the natives by sending a boy ahead of the party to inform the village chief that a crazy European is coming who desires nothing from the natives except trtat they will collect certain rare reptiles and frogs at so much apiece. It is explained that the stranger has more money than he knows what to do with. Each evening, at about 4 o’clock, loveridge returns from his own excursions and proceeds to buy from the natives at the advertised rates. He is enabled to bartyr with them through his knowledge of Swahili, despite the variety of tongues which he encounters, for in every village there is at least one man who speaks this African language. Mr Loveridge hopes that the expedition will provide many new species for the Harvard museum, and will clear up many anomalies and add to existing knowledge of the interrelation of species. He expects to obtain about 8,000 specimens apart from mammals and birds of which the last trip furnished 300 and 400 respectively.