GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS 1551 



procuring these free from injury. The vulture (of 

 which two species occur one in Northern Africa 

 and the other in the neighborhood of the Cape) 

 serves here, as elsewhere, to preserve the air from 

 impurity, by feeding on the carcasses of animals, and 

 divides with the hyena the office of scavenger. The 

 owl, falcon, and eagle are also enumerated among 

 the African birds of prey. Of gallinaceous birds 

 Africa possesses only the guinea-fowl; but the do- 

 mestic poultry are numerously reared, though not 

 indigenous. The woods of tropical Africa abound in 

 numberless varieties of parrots and paroquets, be- 

 sides many other birds of bright and gaudy plumage 

 as the beautiful sun-birds (which inhabit the 

 western coasts, and are scarcely larger than the hum- 

 ming-birds of America), together with the golden- 

 colored orioles, crested hoopoes, bee-eaters, and others. 

 The honey-suckers, which abound in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Cape of Good Hope, feed entirely upon 

 the nectar or saccharine juice of the proteas and sim- 

 ilar plants. The sun-birds also occur in Southern 

 Africa, and rival those of India and the Gambia in 

 the brilliancy of their colors. 



Lizards, serpents, and reptiles of every descrip- 

 tion abound in various parts of the African continent, 

 though its general aridity, throughout extensive re- 

 gions, is less favorable to the development of reptile 

 life than in the case of correspondent latitudes else- 

 where. The crocodile inhabits all the large rivers 

 of tropical Africa, and is abundant in the lower por- 

 tion of the Nile. The huge python, sometimes 

 twenty- two feet in length (though inferior in size 



