138 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Ji-NE 1, 1898. 



marlied degree ; but when the vast superiority in size of 

 Africa over India is taiten into consideration, the marvel is 

 that the fauna of the greater part of that area is not more 

 dissimilar than it is, and that it has been found possible 

 to include the more typical portion of the continent in one 

 great zoological region or province. 



But the reader will naturally inquire what is meant by 

 calling one portion of a continent more typical than the 

 rest. As has been pointed out in an earlier article in this 

 journal,* Northern Africa has, so far as its animals are 

 concerned, been cut off from the districts lying south of 

 the Tropic of Cancer by the great barrier formed by the 

 Sahara : and as the animals of the districts to the north 

 of that desert are for the most part of a European type, 

 while Southern Europe and Northern Africa were evidently 

 joined by land at no very distant epoch of the earth's 

 history, the districts north of the Sahara are for zoological 

 purposes regarded as part of Europe and Asia. Typical, 

 or Ethiopian Africa, as it is more generally termed, 

 includes, therefore, only such portion of the continent as 

 lies to the south of the northern tropic. 



But the critical reader may perhaps here be led to 

 remark that some at least of the animals of Northern Africa 

 are common to the South ; the lion, whose range extends 

 from Algeria to the Cape, affording a case in point. To 

 this it may be replied that, popular prejudice notwith- 

 standing, the lion cannot in any sense be looked upon as 

 a characteristic African animal. Although year by year 

 growing rarer, it to this day still lingers on in certain parts 

 of Western India, while it is likewise found in Persia and 

 Mesopotamia, and within the historic period was common 

 in South-Eastern Europe. At a still earlier epoch, as 

 attested by its fossilized remains, it was an inhabitant of 

 our own island. It may, therefore, to a certain degree be 

 regarded as a cosmopolitan animal, which may have 

 obtained entrance into Africa by more than one route. 

 In a minor degree the same may be said of the hippo- 

 potamus, which was formerly found in the lower reaches 

 of the Nile, and at a much earlier epoch in many parts of 

 Europe, inclusive of Britain. Being an aquatic animal, 

 it can avail itself of routes of communication which are 

 closed to purely terrestrial creatures. 



Of the fauna of typical Africa, as a whole, some of the 

 most striking features are of a negative nature ; that is to 

 say, certain groups which are widely spread in most other 

 districts of the Old World are conspicuous by their absence. 

 This deficiency is most marked in the case of bears and 

 deer, neither of which are represented throughout the 

 whole of this vast expanse of country. Pigs allied to the 

 wild swine of Europe and India are likewise lacking; their 

 place being taken by the bush-pigs and the hideous wart- 

 hogs, both of which are among the most characteristic of 

 African animals. Except for a couple of species of ibex 

 in the hills of the north-east, sheep and goats are likewise 

 unknown in a wild state. Among other absentees in 

 the fauna, special mention may be made of marmots, and 

 their near allies the susliks, as well as of voles, beavers, 

 and moles. 



Of the mammals (and space permits of scarcely any 

 reference to other groups) which may be regarded as 

 characteristic of typical Africa as a whole, the following, 

 in addition to the bush-pigs and wart-hogs already men- 

 tioned, are some of the most important. Among the 

 monkeys the most widely distributed are the hideous 

 baboons (Papio), now restricted to Africa and Arabia, the 

 southern portion of the latter country being included 

 in the same great zoological province. The guenons 



* "Deserts and tbeir luhabitants,' Knowledge, May, p. 101. 



(Cercojjitheais), species of which are the monkeys commonly 

 led about by organ-grinders, have also a wide distribution 

 on the continent, although of course more abundant in the 

 forest regions than elsewhere ; and the gnerez&s {(^<l>jbm), 

 one of which was described some months ago in Know- 

 ledge, ' have also a considerable range. In a totally different 

 group, the curious little jumping shrews (Macroscelides) 

 form a peculiarly characteristic family of African mammals 

 belonging to the insectivorous order. There are also 

 many peculiar genera of mungooses, but as most of these 

 have a more or less local distribution they can scarcely 

 be considered characteristic of the continent as a whole ; 

 still, they are quite different from those found elsewhere. 

 A very curious carnivorous mammal known as the aard- 

 wolf (Proteles), strikingly like a small striped hyaena, is 

 not the least peculiar among the animals of Africa, where 

 it has a comparatively wide range. The hunting dog 

 (Li/caiDi), which presents a considerable resemblance ta the 

 spotted hyicna, is an equally remarkable representative of 

 the dog family. Although formerly found In Europe, the 

 spotted hyipna itself is now exclusively African. 



Passing by the rodents, or gnawing mammals, as being 

 less familiar to non- zoological readers, we have the two 

 species of hippopotami absolutely confined to Africa at the 

 present day ; we are all familiar with the common species 

 in the " Zoo," but the small West African kind, which has 

 more the habits of a pig, is much less commonly known. 



The stately giraffes are solely African, but appear to 

 be mainly confined to the more open districts. The herds 

 of antelopes, for the most part belonging to generic types 

 unknown elsewhere, with the exception of a few in Arabia, 

 form one of the most distinctive features of African life. 

 Many of them, like the strange gnus and the graceful 

 gemsbok group, are confined to the open districts of the 

 south and east; but others, such as the bush-bucks and the 

 harnessed antelopes, have representatives in the forest 

 districts of the west, lioth species of African rhinoceros 

 are quite different from their Oriental relatives, but only 

 one of these, the common species, has a wide distribution 

 in the country. Zebras, and the now extinct quagga, are 

 familiar and striking African animals, although they are 

 confined to the open plains and mountains. On the other 

 hand, the African elephant, which differs so widely in the 

 structure of its teeth from its Asiatic relative, has a 

 much more extensive distribution, and may therefore be 

 classed among the most characteristic of Ethiopian 

 animals. Even more peculiar are the little hyracea 

 (Prociivia), the miscalled coneys of our version of the Bible, 

 which form a family absolutely peculiar to Africa, Arabia, 

 and Syria ; some of the species dwelling among rocks, 

 while others are active climbers, and frequent the forest 

 districts. But perhaps the strangest mammal that may be 

 regarded as characteristic of Africa as a whole is the 

 aard-vark (onjcteritpus), commonly known to the colonists 

 as the ant-pig. It is a strangely isolated creature, having 

 at the present day no near relations, either poor or 

 otherwise. 



The African buffaloes, with their several races or species, 

 also belong to a type quite peculiar to the continent. To 

 a great extent the ostrich is characteristic of Africa and 

 Arabia, although there is evidence to show that it formerly 

 enjoyed a considerable range in parts of .^sia. 



The above are only a few of the more striking instances 

 showing how different are the animals of Africa as a whole 

 from those of the rest of the world. Many others might be 

 added, but they would only weary my readers. Of coarse, 

 there are many groups, like the cats, common to other 



• June. 1897. p. 130. 



