Voyage de M. Guy Babault dans l'Afrique orientale anglaise [et dans l'Ouganda]

Rare first edition of three scientific reports from the zoological exploration mission of Guy-René Babault (1883-1963), corresponding member of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, carried out in present-day Kenya and Uganda in 1913. 

The set comprises: Volume 1: Insectes coléoptères. Cicindelidae, by Guy Babault. – Volume 2: Insectes coléoptères. Fam. Carabidae. Subf. Anthiinae, by G. Bénard. – Volume 3: Étude d'une collection d'oiseaux de l'Afrique orientale anglaise et de l'Ouganda, by A. Menegaux, with field notes by Guy Babault. 

The first volume includes illustrations in the text and one hand-colored entomological plate with tissue guard and facing leaf of legends; the second volume contains one hand-colored entomological plate with tissue guard and facing legends; the third and final volume features six hand-colored ornithological plates with tissue guards, together with a large folding colored map bound at the end. 

Spine and boards marginally faded or sunned, internally well preserved. 

The later life of this self-taught adventurer is remarkable and deserves greater recognition: in the late 1920s, he settled once more in Africa, becoming a coffee planter in the Lake Kivu region of the Belgian Congo. From there, for about a decade, he sent specimens (insects, birds, mammals) to the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. These exchanges were poorly received by the local authorities, and administrative difficulties eventually forced him to move again to Kenya, first to Nairobi and then to Mombasa. In 1939, at the age of 51, he enlisted in the Free French Forces and served throughout the Second World War in Morocco. At the end of the conflict, he returned to Kenya. Gradually losing his sight and no longer able to hunt, he spent the remainder of his life near Mombasa.