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the six Ethiopian families three are not found elsewhere, and one of the others only extends into the Palearctic Region as far as Northern Africa. This is the family of elephant-shrews (Macroscelida).

The Bats of this Region present few particular features of interest, belonging nearly all to widely spread genera of widely spread families. Among those that are peculiar the most important is Epomophorus, containing eight or ten species of large fruit-eating bats, with long rather horse-like heads, and expansible and peculiarly folded lips. The Epomophori seem to take the place, in Africa, of the genus Pteropus, which, although represented by several species in Madagascar, and even in the Comoros (which are separated from the mainland by only a comparatively narrow strait), is entirely absent from the African mainland itself.

Among the Lemurs we have two families, one containing only a single species (Chiromyida) confined to Madagascar, the other (Lemurida) containing a large number of genera, of which ten are confined to Madagascar, two are found on the mainland of Africa, and the other two in the Oriental Region.

The Quadrumana of the Ethiopian Region, which are entirely absent from Madagascar, belong to two families, both of them shared with the Oriental. The genera, however, six in number, are all without exception confined to this Region. In the first place this Region is the only home of the Gorilla and Chimpanzee (Fig. 18, p. 97), two of the Apes most nearly allied to Man in structure, and usually placed at the apex of the mammalian series. The Colobs, or Thumbless Monkeys (Colobus), represent the Langurs (Semnopithecus) of the Oriental Region in

Africa, and number some ten or twelve species. The long

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tailed Cercopitheci, or Guenons, are essentially arboreal, and are spread all over tropical Africa where trees are

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found. They are very numerous, and from thirty to forty species have been described, some of them, such as the Diana Monkey (Cercopithecus diana) and Brazza's Monkey (C. brazza) remarkable for their beautifully coloured fur. Intermediate between the Guenons and the Macaques of the Oriental Region are the Mangabeys (Cercocebus), of which some six species are recognized. Finally, the terrestrial Baboons (Theropithecus and Cynocephalus) close the Ethiopian series with some eight or ten species.

Summarizing these results, therefore, we find that the Ethiopian Region is characterized by the exclusive possession of eleven families of mammals, namely—

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and by the presence of about ninety-nine endemic genera. On the other hand, among a considerable number of families not represented in this Region, the following five are all widely spread elsewhere, and may therefore be considered as typical "lipotypes" of the Ethiopian Region:

Cervidae (Deer).
Tapirida (Tapirs).
Castoridæ (Beavers).

Ursidae (Bears).
Talpida (Moles).

SECTION III.-SUBDIVISION OF THE ETHIOPIAN REGION

In dividing the Ethiopian Region into Sub-regions, it must be always remembered that one of the Sub-regions far predominates over the others in speciality and distinct

ness, and that the remaining Sub-regions all resemble one another more or less closely, and are difficult of separation.

This Sub-region, which is so distinct from the others, consists of the large island of Madagascar, together with the island-groups in its immediate vicinity, viz., the Comoros, the Seychelles, and Amirantes to the north, and the Mascarene islands (Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodriguez) to the east. Whatever other conclusions may be arrived at regarding the best mode of dividing the Ethiopian Region, every authority is, we believe, agreed on this matter, the only doubtful point being whether the Malagasy Sub-region is not well entitled to the full rank of a Region.

On the African continent itself a fairly distinct Subregion can be recognized, extending all over the forest country of Western Africa from the Senegal River over the whole Congo basin, or perhaps rather further south. The best inland boundary of this Sub-region would probably be the water-parting between the West African rivers on the one side, and the Nile on the other. There can, at any rate, be now little doubt that the West African fauna extends nearly as far eastwards as the western bank of Lake Tanganyika. Even on the shores of Victoria Nyanza, according to Herr Neumann's (5) recent researches, some typical West African forms are met with; but for the present it will be safer to restrict the West African Subregion to the western watershed. The Southern or Cape Sub-region, as defined by Wallace, includes only the country south of a line drawn from Walfisch Bay, just to the north of the tropic of Capricorn, to Mozambique. Since the publication of Mr. Wallace's book, however, much additional information has been obtained regarding the distri

bution of the mammals of Eastern Africa. Many of the animals formerly supposed to be confined to the southern end of the continent, have been shown to extend all through Nyasaland, at least as far north as British East Africa. It will, therefore, be advisable to extend the boundaries of this Sub-region further north. The boundary adopted in this paper, as will be seen by consulting the map (Plate IV., p. 122), runs from Angola in the west, along the southern water-parting of the Congo as far as Lake Tanganyika, passing thence to Kilimanjaro, and so on to the Indian Ocean along the Tana River.

The rest of Africa, including the Sahara, the southern portion of Arabia, and North-East Africa, will form a fourth Sub-region, which, however, does not contain nearly so high a percentage of endemic genera as the other three.

The Ethiopian Region may therefore be divided into four Sub-regions as follows:

1. The Malagasy Sub-region, including Madagascar and its adjacent islands.

2. The West African Sub-region, including the great equatorial forest of Central Africa contained in the basins of the western rivers, from the Senegal to the Congo inclusive.

3. The Cape Sub-region, including all Africa south of the watershed of the Congo on the West and of the Tana on the East coast.

4. The Saharan Sub-region, consisting (if we exclude the Abyssinian plateau) chiefly of desert, or at any rate of a comparatively dry country, including the Sahara, Eastern Africa as far south as the Tana River, and Southern Arabia.

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