viii PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION 



more or less alteration, from the Zoological Society's Proceedings, the 

 Field, and other journals. 



The work in its present state can only be regarded as a preliminary 

 attempt to give something like a complete account of the game-fauna 

 of the African continent ; and it is certain that many alterations 

 and, it is hoped, many additions will have to be made in future 

 editions. 



Two points in connection with the African continent demand 

 brief mention : firstly, its enormous area, about four times that of India ; 

 and, secondly, the marked distinction of the fauna of Africa north of 

 the Sahara, or north of the tropic of Cancer, from that of all the vast 

 region to the southward of the same. Northern Africa is, in fact, so 

 far as its animals are concerned, a part of Europe. We have, for 

 instance, in this area such groups as deer, sheep, goats, and bears, 

 which are conspicuous by their absence from the rest of the continent, 

 except so far as sheep and goats have penetrated some distance into 

 the highlands of the north-eastern corner. On the other hand, what 

 may be called the characteristic African animals are to a great extent 

 wanting from the tract north of the Sahara. 



Africa south of the tropic of Cancer is conveniently called 

 Ethiopian Africa, or simply Ethiopia. The local differences in the 

 Ethiopian fauna are chiefly dependent upon what naturalists call 

 " station." One of the most marked of these local faunas is that of the 

 great equatorial forest-zone. The Cape fauna likewise presented many 

 peculiarities in the days of its prime ; while the fauna of East Africa 

 shows a certain approximation to that of India. 



Except that a few occur in Syria and Arabia, the antelopes and 

 most of the other herbivorous big game animals of Ethiopian Africa 

 belong to types unknown elsewhere. Exclusive of the gazelles, the 

 antelopes, for instance, are generically distinct from those of other 

 lands; while giraffes, okapi, hippopotamuses, wart-hogs, bush-pigs, 

 forest-hogs, and ant-bears are unknown elsewhere at the present day. 

 Moreover, although the elephant, rhinoceroses, and zebras and quaggas 



