African Nature Notes and Reminiscences

8vo. Brick red cloth, slightly rubbed. 356pp. Top edge gilt. 13 full page b/w plates. Contents excellent, with no hinge cracking or inscriptions. Forward by President Roosevelt.

Frederick Courteney Selous (31 December 1851 - 4 January 1917) was a British explorer, officer, hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in south and east of Africa.

Roosevelt wrote of Selous: "Mr. Selous is the last of the big game hunters of Southern Africa; the last of the mighty hunters whose experience lay in the greatest hunting ground which this world has seen since civilised man has appeared herein."

Many of the Selous trophies entered into museums and international taxidermy and natural-history collections, notably that of the Natural History Museum in London. In their Selous Collection they have 524 mammals from three continents, all shot by him, including nineteen African lions.

On 4 January 1917, Selous was fighting a bush-war on the banks of the Rufiji River, against German colonial Schutztruppen, outnumbered five-to-one. That morning, in combat, during a minor engagement, while creeping forward, he raised his head and binoculars to locate the enemy, and was shot in the head by a German sniper. He was killed instantly.