OKAVANGO ADVENTURE

Another kippy, engaging Briton who collects animals in Africa, rattles on about some smashing coups and, equally cheerful, about the times he appeared rather an ass before the knowledgeable natives. Mallinson is a protege of Gerald Durrell, of the many books and the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, and he writes with something of the same elan. Mallinson, a bit serendipitously it seems, did his collecting in East Africa, Zambia and Rhodesia and shipped home a lively assortment -- small mammals, large birds, lions, monkeys, etc. The photographs are particularly arresting, featuring as they do the boyish author posing with a variety of his finds: being nuzzled by a gorilla or tolerated by a vulture. The author is also a connoisseur of the ridiculous in human situations as in his account of a petition session with a tribal queen: ""Should I try to look like a keen scientist. . . or a vague naturalist? I decided (on) a look of serious anxiety."" You might learn a modicum about wild animal capture but you'll be more intrigued by the author's ruminations while rattling around in the bush. Amusing.