BRIEFS | Books
Burchell's African Odyssey
BY ROGER STEWART AND MARION WHITEHEAD
Penguin Random House/Struik Nature, RRP R340
Burchell's zebra, Burohell's coucal, Burchell's sandgrouse, Burchell's courser, Eciton burchellii army ant, Burchell's sugarbush – a great number of South Africa's flora and fauna have been named for British polymath William Burchell. He was the first European to describe the now-vulnerable African black-footed cat, Africa's smallest wild cat, after seeing skins in Litakun (now Dithakong).
Burchell arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1810,