CHAP. XIII THE AFRICAN COLONY IN PALESTINE 261 



in the oases at the northern end of the Red Sea and above the 

 gorge of the Jordan there is a Sun-Bird {Cinnyris oscce, Bonap.), 

 belonging to a family not found in Africa north of the Sahara, 

 though to the south it ranges east and west through the 

 tropical regions of Africa and Asia.^ The African Darter 

 {Pioius levaillanti, Licht.) is common in Southern Africa, on 

 the Zambesi, along the East African coast, and on the Niger ; 

 it is absent from Egypt, Nubia, and the whole of the north-east 

 of Africa, but reappears in Syria, in the Lake of Antioch, and 

 no doubt once extended along the Jordan.-^ Of the three 

 Turtle -Doves of Palestine one {JFurtur covnnitiiis^ Selby) is 

 European, another {T. risorius, Linn.) Indian, and the other 

 {T. senegalc7isis, Linn.) Ethiopian ; the last occurs throughout 

 Africa, except on the north of the Atlas, and in Palestine is 

 restricted to the Jordan.^ Tristram's Grakle {Amydrus tris- 

 traijii, Sclater) and the Fan-Tail Raven {Corviis affinis, Riipp.) 

 have the same remarkable range, being confined to Palestine 

 and Eastern Tropical Africa; the former lives only in Palestine 

 and Equatorial Africa, and the latter only among the cliffs of 

 the Dead Sea and the highlands of Abyssinia and Kordofan."* 



The literature of any group could be quoted as further 

 evidence for the former connection of Palestine and Equatorial 

 Africa along a line which avoided Egypt and the Lower Nile. 

 The mammals give us the example of the Coney {Procavia 

 syriaca, Hemp, and Ehr.), which belongs to a typically East 

 African genus, but does not there occur farther north than 

 Abyssinia. The only Rhizopod quoted by Tristram from the 

 Dead Sea is the Grainniostominn cnprcohis, P. and J., an Indian 

 Ocean species. 



Among butterflies, Hart's small collection on the Dead 

 Sea yielded two species of the typically Ethiopian genus 

 Teraco/us, one of which {T. pJiisadia, God.) was known in 

 Aden and Abyssinia, and the other {T. chryso7iovu\ Klug.) in 

 Somaliland. The evidence of the plants points in the same 

 direction. Among Mediterranean and European species there 

 are many known elsewhere only in Equatorial Africa and Asia, 

 and — which are absent from Lower Egypt. 



^ See H. B. Tristram, The Fauna a7id Flora of Palestine (London, 1884), pp. 63-64. 

 - Op. cit. pp. 108-109. ^ Op. cit. p. 121. 



■• Op. cit. pp. 74-76. 



