CH. Il] SUBDIVISIONS OF ETHIOPIAN REGION. 101 



are two groups of uncertain affinities ; as the late Prof. 

 Garrod pointed out, the latter has resemblances to the 

 Gallinacese. Mesites of Madagascar will be found referred 

 to under the description of the fauna of that island. The 

 peculiar types of birds are by no means so numerous or so 

 important as they are in South America. 



The Ethiopian region is divisible into the following 

 sub-regions : (I) East-African, (II) West-African, (III) 

 South-African, (IV) Mascarene. 



East-African sub-region. This sub-region includes 

 not only east but also the greater part of central Africa, 

 and it extends to the north so far as to include Arabia, 

 Abyssinia and the south of Egypt. Below the Sahara it 

 extends right across the continent to the Atlantic, its 

 lower boundary being at about the river Gambia, and 

 again below the West-African sub-region it extends right 

 across. Among the peculiar Mammalia of this sub-region 

 are the Gelada baboon of Abyssinia, the curious little 

 naked and burrowing rodent Heterocephalus and another 

 rodent, Pectinator. The rhinoceroses and the giraffe are 

 practically confined to it, but this restriction is one of the 

 many cases of the limitation of faunas largely due to man. 

 Among birds the boatbill Balceniceps is peculiar, and so is 

 the shrike Hypocolius. But on the whole the sub-region 

 is not well marked by its peculiar types, though abound- 

 ing in the characteristically African forms. 



II. The West-African sub-region extends as far south 

 as the Congo. It is characterised by the Gorilla and by 

 at least one species of Chimpanzee, the Anthropopithecus 

 calvus. The Potto, Perodicticus, and the nearly allied, if 



