GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 349 



natives of Egypt/ and among them members of some 8 or 10 



good genera, not a species of which rightly belongs to the northern 



area — such as Nectarinia, Chrysococcyx, Centropus, Otogyps, Tmitalus, n/ 1 t 



Ibis, Chenalopex, Etipodotis, Phcvianus, and Ehjnchsea.. The Ethiopian /iAp>f/n^ 



character of the truly Egyj)tian Avifauna seems to be thus fully ^z* ^^i^^j^ti^ 



established. ' f 



Respecting the Abyssinian subprovince very full particulars are 

 included in the work of Von Heuglin,^ supplemented as regards 

 Shoa, by the labours of Count T. Salvadori,^ based upon the 

 explorations of Antinori and Dr. Ragazzi, but the precise features 

 of its Avifauna are not easily ascertained from the former, since he 

 has not discriminated between it and the Egyptian. Still it would 

 seem that nearly 220 species may be peculiar to this part of the 

 subprovince, and among them that most wonderful form Balseniceps 

 (Shoe-bill). A remarkable feature in the Abyssinian Avifauna is the 

 occurrence there, not as migrants but as actual natives of its moun- 

 tains, of several birds which would otherwise be deemed purely 

 Palsearctic, as, for example, both the Cornish and the Alpine 

 Chough (Fregilus). The presence of these northern forms in the 

 Abj^ssinian highlands induced a hope that some of them might 

 extend to the still loftier lands of Kilima-njaro and its neighbouring 

 heights, which would therefore have to be included in the sub- 

 province, but that hope has been disappointed by the zoological 

 survey of Mr. Johnston (Froc. Zool. Soc. 1885, pp. 219-239), which 

 unfortunately produced nothing of the kind. Indeed, it seems as 

 if we might suspect that the Fauna of this district, which reaches 

 the highest elevation in Africa, may have greater affinity to, if it 

 be not practically identical with that of the Caffrarian Province far 

 away to the southward. To the Abyssinian subprovince, however, 

 must probably be assigned the island of Socotra, whereon out of 

 two dozen species that have been observed, one-third — and all 

 of them Fasseres — seem to be peculiar, two of them belonging to a 

 peculiar genus Fhynchostruthus. 



Of the Gambian subprovince not much is to be said. M. de 

 Rochbrune^ has enumerated 686 species of Birds as occurring in 

 the French portion of it, but none of them are peculiar, while 423, 

 or more than sixty per cent., seem to be common to the north-east 

 of Africa, 112 to the Gaboon district, and 274 to Angola, thus 

 leading directly to the Province next to be mentioned. But to the 

 Gambian subprovince belong the Cape Verd Islands, which out of 



^ There can he hardly a doubt that this number would be increased were 

 further researches carried on during the breeding-season. 



- Ornithologie Nordost Afrika's. Cassel : 1859-1875. 



^ Uccelli dello Scioa. Genova: 1884; and Catalogo di mm collezionediUcceUi 

 dello Scioa, Genova : 1888. 



* Faune de la Senigambie, Oiseaux. Paris : 1884. 



