The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

chap, xi.] THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. 259moderate elevation.The eastern portion reaches from about thesecond cataract of the Nile, or perhaps from about the parallelof 20° N. Latitude, down to about 20° S.Latitude, and from theeast coast to where the great forest region commences, or to LakeTanganyika and about the meridian of 28° to 30° E. Longitude.The greater part of this tract is a lofty plateau.The surface of all this sub-region is generally open, coveredwith a vegetation of high grasses or thorny shrubs, with scatteredtrees and isolated patches of forest in favourable situations.The only parts where extensive continuous forests occur, are onthe eastern and western slopesof the great Abyssiuian plateau,and on the Mozambique coast from Zanzibar to Sofala. Thewhole of this great district has one general zoological character.Many species range from Senegal to Abyssinia, others fromAbyssinia to the Zambesi, and a few, asMungos fasciatus andPhacochcerus cethiopicus, range over the entire sub-region.Fennecus,Ictonyx, and several genera of antelopes, characterise everypart of it, as do many genera of birds. Coracias ncevia, Corytlwrniscyanostigma, Tockus nasutus, T. erythrorhynchus, Parusleucopterus, Buphaga africana, Vidua paradisea, are examplesof species, which are found in the Gambia, Abyssinia and SouthEast Africa, but not in the West African sub-region ; and consideringhow very little is known of the natural historyof the country immediately south of the Sahara, it maywell be supposed that these are only a small portion of thespecies really common to the whole area inprove itsfundamental unity.question, and whichAlthough this sub-region is so extensive and so generallyuniform in physical features, it is by far the least peculiar partof Africa.typesIt possesses, of course, all those wide-spread Ethiopianwhich inhabit every part of the region, but it has hardlyany special features of its own. The few genera which arepeculiar to it have generally a limited range, and for the mostpart belong, either to the isolated mountain-plateau of Abyssiniawhich is almost as much Palaearctic as Ethiopian, or to the woodydistricts of Mozambique where the fauna has more of a Westor South African character.