358 Wonders of the Bird World 



northern border, and here we meet with a desert Avifauna, 

 abounding in Larks and Chats, from which we may gather 

 that a natural Sub-Region there exists, and probably ex- 

 tends from the confines of the Egyptian Delta and Nubia 

 eastwards as far as the Cape Verde Islands. 



II. THE SOUDANESE SUB-REGION. 



By this Sub-Region I indicate the whole of the country 

 lying to the south of the Sahara, extending northwards to 

 Nubia below the Nile Delta and including what is known of 

 Arabia. A vast portion of this Sub- Region is unexplored, 

 and its Ornithology is unknown, but there is evidently a 

 connection between the Avifauna of Senegambia and that 

 of Abyssinia, evidenced by the occurrence in both countries 

 of such birds as the Abyssinian Roller (Coracias abyssmica], 

 and by certain of the Game-birds. It is a country of 

 Francolins, Quails, and Bustards, and on the Gold Coast 

 near Accra, there seems to be a break in the continuity of 

 the forest-region, and the Soudanese fauna reaches to the 

 coast. Otherwise it is confined to the interior and is shut 

 off by the forest-region aforesaid. Many species of birds 

 are peculiar to this Soudanese Sub-Region, which also 

 constitutes the winter-home of many of our European 

 migrants. 



III. THE WEST AFRICAN SUB-REGION. 



From the forest districts of Southern Senegambia to the 

 Gold Coast this Sub-Region is well marked, and after the 

 small gap caused by the interposition of the Soudanese 

 Sub-Region at Accra, the West African Sub-Region extends, 

 unbroken to any large extent, to the Cameroons, Gaboon, 

 and the Congo, as far as the River Coanza in Angola, and 

 probably in isolated patches, even to the south of the latter 

 river. Inland this natural region extends throughout the 

 Congo Basin to the western watershed of the Nile, as has 



