GKOfiKAPinCAL UISTRIBUriON. Ixxix 



Seminar, and Somaliluiid in the north, to Namaqualanrl, Mashona, 

 and Nyosalaud in the south. Besides these two provinces, .South 

 Arabia and the island of Peinba re(inire special remarks. — Matsehie's 

 attempt to subdivide the Ethiopian region into a large number of 

 zoogeographical districts ("Gebiete"), each with its own distinct 

 Mammalian fauna, breaks completely down when tested on the 

 distribution of the Ethiopian Fruit-bats. 



^\^est African provi)ice.- — 12 genera, 23 species C24 forms). 

 Pterojms is the only genus which, though represented in the 

 Ethiopian region (the island of Pcraba), is absent from W. Africa. 

 Of the twelve genera no less than nine are peculiar, viz. Flerotrs, 

 Epomops, Ifi/psi(jnafhi(S, Micropteropus, Kaiioiii/ctens, Scofoni/cteris, 

 and Casini/cteris (all of the Epnmciphorus section), Mi/o»>/cteris 

 (Ci/noptertis section), and MegaJoglossiis {31'(crofjJossincr) ; expressed 

 in other words : all genera of the Epomophorine section of Eruit- 

 bats are contined to this province, except Ej)omophorus itself, which 

 is common to W. and E. Africa, and this province (" Afro-Malaya," 

 as it was, perhaps a little jokingly, called by the late Dr. 11. Bowdler 

 Sharpe) is the only part of Africa in which the otherwise essentaallj' 

 Oriental and Austro-Malayan Cynopterine and Macroglossino 

 sections are represented. The three non-autochthonous genera are 

 Eidolon, lloasettxs, and Epomopihorns. The genus liousettus falls 

 into three subgenera, liouseUns, Slenon}jcteriK, and Lissonycteris ; 

 of these the first is widely distributed in the Ethiopian and Oriental 

 regions and Austro-Malaya, while the two latter are confined to 

 the Ethiopian region ; Steaoiii/cterin is common to the West and East 

 African Provinces (one species in each), Lissoni/cteris (two sjieries) 

 is peculiar to West Africa. Of the twenty-four "West African 

 forms no less than twenty-one are peculiar, {. e. all forms except 

 Eidolon helvum (generally distributed in the Ethiopian region), 

 lioiisettan cvijfipliacus (Eoanda and Congo to Egypt, Palestine, &c.), 

 and Epomophorus (jamhiivms (Guinea coast to Sennaar and Abys- 

 sinia); only one of the twenty -one peculiar forms, viz. Epomophorus 

 wahlbergi haldemani, extends eastward a little beyond the borders 

 of the province, into German and British East Africa. 



Suggestions as to a possible subdivision of the province would 

 be ])remature ; in too many cases the range of the genera and 

 species is only imperfectly known. Some species (Ili/psignathus 

 moiistrosus, Micropteropus pusillus) have a continuous distributit)n 

 from Gambia, along the Guinea coast, through the Congo ]5asin to 

 Victoria Xyanza ; in other cases the area is divided between several 

 species of one genus : Epomops hurttilofcri in Liberia and Sierra 

 Leone, E. fritnq\teti from the Gold Coast, east to Victoria Xyanza, 

 south to Loanda, E.dohsoni in Bongucla and Katanga; Mi/oni/ctcris 

 leptodon in Liberia and Sierra Leone, J/. wroiKjhtoni in the \\'e]lc 

 district of the Congo Basin, M. torquafa in the Lower Congo district; 

 and Angola. 



Islands in Gnlf of Ginnfn. — The followin<T species have been 

 recorded from the ishituls of Eernando Po, Principe. Sau Thome, 



