THE ETHIOPIAN REGION 99 



ness, and that the remaining Sub-regions all resemble one 

 another more or less closely, and are difficult of separation. 

 This Sub-region, which is so distinct from the others, 

 consists of the large island of Madagascar, together with 

 the island-groups in its immediate vicinity, viz., the 

 Comoros, the Seychelles, and Amirantes to the north, and 

 the Mascarene islands (Reunion, Mauritius, and Rodriguez) 

 to the east. Whatever other conclusions may be arrived 

 at regarding the best mode of dividing the Ethiopian 

 Region, every authority is, we believe, agreed on this 

 matter, the only doubtful point being whether the 

 Malagasy Sub-region is not well entitled to the full rank 

 of a Region. 



On the African continent itself a fairly distinct Sub- 

 region can be recognized, extending all over the forest 

 country of Western Africa from the Senegal River over 

 the whole Congo basin, or perhaps rather further south. 

 The best inland boundary of this Sub-region would probably 

 be the water-parting between the West African rivers on 

 the one side, and the Nile on the other. There can, at 

 any rate, be now little doubt that the West African fauna 

 extends nearly as far eastwards as the western bank of 

 Lake Tanganyika. Even on the shores of Victoria Nyanza, 

 according to Herr Neumann's (5) recent researches, some 

 typical West African forms are met with; but for the 

 present it will be safer to restrict the West African Sub- 

 region to the western watershed. The Southern or Cape 

 Sub-region, as defined by Wallace, includes only the country 

 south of a line drawn from Walfisch Bay, just to the north 

 of the tropic of Capricorn, to Mozambique. Since the 

 publication of Mr. Wallace's book, however, much addi- 

 tional information has been obtained regarding the distri- 



