244 THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. [CHAP. 



with in great abundance up to Cape Guardafui. The vast plains 

 traversed by the Upper Nile and its tributaries are likewise well 

 stocked with antelope life ; but in the great Sahara only some of 

 the more desert-loving forms are to be found. In Senegambia 

 again, and in the more open districts on the West Coast, many 

 forms of antelopes occur, but they cannot rival the numbers and 

 varieties of those of Eastern and Southern Africa." Although 

 most of the genera of Ethiopian antelopes are peculiar to the 

 continent, a few desert-haunting types range into southern Arabia, 

 and hence northwards into Syria, where they enter the Holarctic 

 region. Many of the groups have extinct representatives in the 

 lower Pliocene of southern Europe and India, and since existing 

 Ethiopian genera are more common in the latter than in the 

 former area, it seems probable that the great migration into 

 Ethiopian Africa has taken place from the east, by way of Syria or 

 Arabia. As such extinct genera or species have been already 

 noticed 1 , it will suffice to take a very brief survey of the genera 

 now mainly or exclusively confined to Ethiopian Africa. 



The first section includes the hartebeests and their allies the 

 bontebok and blesbok, all of which may well be included in the 

 genus Bubalis, although the two latter are often separated as 

 Damaliscus. One species of the typical group ranges into Syria, 

 while a second is an inhabitant of Tunis. To the same section 

 also belong the wildebeests, or gnus ( Connochcetes). On the other 

 hand the numerous species of duikerboks (Cephalophus) consti- 

 tute, so far as Africa is concerned, a section to themselves. They 

 are, however, allied to the Indian four-horned antelope (Tetraceros\ 

 and it is not improbable that they are represented in the Pliocene 

 of the Siwalik Hills. While many species of the genus are found 

 in East and South Africa, the largest kinds are confined to the 

 forest-districts of the West Coast. The small African antelopes 

 classed by Sir V. Brooke in the Ceruicaprince and included in 

 the genera Neotragus and Nanotragus are now referred by Messrs 

 Sclater and Thomas to a section apart, under the name of 

 Nanotragin<z, and are classed in six genera. Of these, Madoqua ~, 

 with six species, includes Salt's antelope (M. saltiand)\ Nanotragus 



1 Supra, pp. 197 206. 2 Syn. Neotragtis. 



