232 



THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. 



[CHAP. 



ever, exclusively confined to West Africa, where they are known 

 by two species, regarded by some as representing as many genera. 



It will be unnecessary to say more with regard to the Chiro- 

 ptera than that the fruit-bats (Pteropodidce) are represented solely by 

 three peculiar genera in the Ethiopian region, of which Epomo- 

 phorus has the greater number and the most peculiar of its species 

 confined to the western forest tract, while the single species of 

 Scotonycteris is solely found in this part of this continent, as is 

 also the case with that of Trygenycteris. 



Of great importance from a distributional point of view are the 

 Ethiopian Insectivora, since of the five families found within the 



FIG. 52. AFRICAN JUMPING-SHREW (Macroscelides tetradactyhis]. 



area under consideration, two are almost or exclusively confined 

 to it, while the third has only one aberrant representative in Mada- 

 gascar, and even this may prove entitled to constitute a family by 

 itself when its structure is more fully known than is at present the 



