EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA. 95 



other ; a wise dispensation of Providence since, were 

 they limited to more circumscribed bounds, the animals 

 upon which they feed would soon be exterminated. 



(132.) If we are to consider Central Africa as forming 

 part of this division of the continent, which cannot, 

 in the present state of knowledge, be strictly defined, 

 we may here observe, that in Abyssinia, and those 

 kingdoms which border upon Central and Northern 

 Africa, the elephant and the rhinoceros are not uncom- 

 mon, while the Camelopardalia antiquorum Sw., or the 

 northern giraffe, has recently been detected by Mr. 

 Ruppel, whose elaborate observations have enabled us 

 to characterise it as a distinct species from the giraffe 

 of Southern Africa (C. australls Sw.). The lion of the 

 ancients (Leo Africanus Sw.), in like manner, is a spe- 

 cies peculiar to these regions. 



(133.) The quadrupeds of Nubia, from the proxi- 

 mity of that kingdom to the more equinoctial latitudes, 

 may be also comprehended in this division ; yet they 

 are more allied to those of Egypt than to the species of 

 Southern Africa. Four sorts of antelopes are enumer- 

 ated by Mr. Ruppel ; who also describes four peculiar 

 kinds of wild dogs, or rather foxes, as natives of the 

 Kordofan deserts. These countries seem not to be in- 

 habited by any of the quadrupeds of the western 

 coast, while as many are common to Egypt and Abys- 

 sinia : it appears, on the whole, to belong more cor- 

 rectly to Northern Africa. 



(134.) The ornithological peculiarities of tropical 

 Africa are very striking, when compared with those of the 

 northern parts. The birds are not only more numerous, 

 and more beautiful, but exhibit many remarkable and 

 peculiar genera, particularly among the perching tribes. 

 The rapacious birds do not appear so numerous as 

 under the corresponding latitudes of America. Vultures 

 seem to be rare ; since, in all probability, the removal 

 of putrid matter is more expeditiously performed by the 

 hyaenas. On the coast of Guinea, there is a noble bird, 



