CHAPTER IV 

 THE ETHIOPIAN REGION 



(Plate IV., p. 122) 



Section I. — Boundakies of the Ethiopian Region 



The Ethiopian Region (see Map, Plate IV.) contains the 

 whole of Africa south of the Sahara, together with Southern 

 Arabia and the island of Madagascar. As in all other cases 

 where there is a long land-frontier between two neighbour- 

 ing Regions, so here it is impossible to lay down anything 

 but an approximate line of demarcation between the 

 Ethiopian and Paleearctic Regions. 



The boundary usually adopted is the line of the Tropic 

 of Cancer, which strikes Africa between Morocco and Sene- 

 gambia, runs through the middle of the Sahara, crosses 

 the Nile between the first and second cataracts, and passes 

 through Arabia to the neighbourhood of Oman, on the 

 Persian Gulf. Most of the country through which this 

 line passes is desert, and its mammalian fauna is con- 

 sequently meagre. Mr. O. Thomas (6) has recently 

 published an account of a collection of mammals received 

 at the British Museum from Oman, which shows, as would 

 naturally be expected, that " the geographical relationships 

 of this district are about equal with Africa and India ; 

 three of the species being distinctly African in affinities, 

 three Indian, and the remainder either peculiar or widely 

 spread and of no special significance." On the whole, 



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