292 NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA. 



ostrich and the camelopard are proper to Africa ; the lemnrs 

 to Madagascar ; the pongo, or gigantic orang-outang, to 

 the great Asiatic islands; and the common toad to the 

 ■western countries of Europe. So also, in the order of quad- 

 Tumanous, or four-handed animals, such as apes and mon- 

 keys, the division called Platyrrliini, distinguished by the 

 breadth of the partition which separates the nostrils, occurs 

 only in South America ; while another great division, named 

 Catarrhini, of which the nostrils are contiguous, is found 

 only in the Old World. A naturalist would therefore find 

 no difficulty in determining, merely from a glance at the 

 muzzle, whether a species of this order was native to the 

 ancient continent or the new. 



Wherever the observant traveller turns his steps, he finds 

 in every country animals peculiar to itself ; and many of 

 these, occupying the most remote and insulated spots, are 

 the most inadequately supplied with the means of locomo- 

 tion. The mode of their original dispersion, whether from 

 a single position, or from multiplied centres of creation, has 

 therefore been a theme which has not unfrequently exercised 

 the ingenuity of naturalists. The subject, however, seems 

 to be one which scarcely falls within the scope of human 

 intelligence ; although a most ample source of interesting 

 and legitimate speculation may be made to flow from an ac- 

 curate and extended record of facts illustrative of their pre- 

 sent distribution, the amount of genera and species, the re- 

 lation which that amount bears to the animal productions of 

 other countries, and similar numerical details. 



In the present chapter, we propose to exhibit a brief 

 sketch of the natural history of the greater portion of the 

 African continent ; and, although our limits will not permit 

 us to draw an extended parallel between the zoology of that 

 country and the animal products of the other quarters of the 

 globe, we shall yet have occasion, at an after-period of our 

 series, to survey the characteristic features of all the other 

 great divisions of the earth, — and, in so doing, may atford 

 the means of an accurate comparison between these and the 

 subjects of our present inquiry. In the mean time, however, 

 we shall not abstain from an occasional reference to the 

 analogous species of other countries, whenever we shall bo 

 thereby enabled to throw any additional light upon the hi» 

 tory of the African tribes. 



