ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 

 BOOK III: MISCELLANEOUS 



PART I 

 BIRDS 



CHAPTER I 

 MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS 



NINE hundred and twenty species of birds, including the 

 European migrants, have been described from south 

 Africa up to the present, while throughout the con- 

 tinent at large, classification has made considerable 

 progress. For zoological purposes the northern limits 

 of the sub-continent are usually taken to be the Zambezi 

 and Cunene :Rivers, that is to say, roughly sixteen degrees 

 of south latitude. North of this, central and east 

 African types of mammals and birds begin to show 

 themselves. A high range of mountains sometimes 

 apparently affects the distribution of birds, and species 

 may occur on one side which are not found on the 

 other. 



The question of the migrations of birds has recently 

 received a good deal of attention in south Africa. Many 

 species, as is well known, spend the summer in Europe 

 or in north Africa, and come south again before the 

 cold weather begins ; most of these are birds which breed 



