The Collection of Birds made by the late Mr. Frank Oates was formed by that gentleman with the greatest care, and it is seldom that it falls to the lot of the naturalist to examine a series of birds in which the particulars of capture are so carefully noted on each specimen as in the present instance. For this reason alone, therefore, the collection is of great importance; but, besides this, it represents without doubt a very fair idea of the avifauna of the parts of the Transvaal and Matabele countries through which Mr. Oates travelled. Of the birds of the former province Mr. Ayres has published several accounts in recent volumes of the “Ibis,” and in the same journal for 1874, Mr. T. E. Buckley gave a list of the birds met with by him on his journey through the Matabele country, where he travelled for some part of the time with Mr. Oates: but as Mr. Buckley did not get beyond Tati, it has been left for Mr. Oates to give us the first account of the birds which are to be met with between that place and the Zambesi. His untimely death was a great loss to science, for, after his long journey to that river, he had at last reached a _terra fere incognita_ to the ornithologist, where there is little doubt that further researches would have crowned his efforts with the discovery of many new and important facts. The avifauna of the Zambesi region is almost unknown, Dr. Kirk being the only naturalist who has written upon the birds, and the species which he has recorded are sufficiently interesting to arouse our interest in the further exploration of the locality. As far as one can judge from the materials at present existing in museums, the birds of the Zambesi region would appear to have their nearest affinities in those of South-western Africa, that is, the provinces of Benguela, Mossamedes, and the Ovampo country to the north of Damara Land. Thus it is that _Accipiter ovampensis_ of Gurney, discovered in Ovampo Land, is now known from the Zambesi (_Mus. Brit._), and, on the other hand, the Zambesi Kestrel (_Cerchneis Dickinsoni_) occurs also in South-western Africa. Instances of this kind might be multiplied to a greater extent, but an exact comparison cannot be made until the two regions have been more thoroughly explored. The Victoria Falls, up to the present time, constituted the only locality whence the peculiar Babbling-Thrush (_Pinarornis plumosus_) and Shelley’s Wheatear (_Saxicola Shelleyi_) have yet been found, but one of these has now been discovered by Mr. Oates in the Matabele country. Future research may increase the known range of the other Zambesi birds in a southerly direction, and it seems unlikely that the Zambesi region possesses a peculiar bird-fauna.