VII.] ETHIOPIAN AND MALAYAN FAUNAS. 257 



Western Africa, than between that of peninsular India and 

 Eastern and South Africa ; large man-like apes and linsangs being 

 confined in the Oriental region to its eastern half, while palm- 

 civets, lorises, and chevrotains are more abundant there than in 

 other parts of the same region. This, however, appears to be 

 mainly or entirely due to similarity of climatic conditions, and 

 not to original distributional distinctions. And, it may be re- 

 marked, increased acquaintance with the fauna of Ethiopia tends 

 to show that types formerly thought to be confined to the western 

 half of Africa really extend far to the eastward ; chimpanzees, for 

 instance, being now known to range as far east as Ugogo, while 

 the genus Nandinia, which was originally known solely by a West 

 African species, is now proved to have an eastern representative in 

 Nyasaland. 



The similarity between the fauna of the Malayan sub-region 

 and that of Western Africa naturally leads on to the consideration 

 of the former land-connection between India and Africa. Writing 

 on this subject, Dr Wallace 1 observes that "we may now perhaps 

 see the reason of the singular absence from tropical Africa of deer 

 and bears ; for these are both groups which live in fertile and well- 

 wooded countries, whereas the line of immigration from Europe to 

 Africa was probably always, as now, to a great extent a dry and 

 desert tract, suited to antelopes and large felines, but almost 

 impassable to deer and bears. We find, too, that whereas remains 

 of antelopes and giraffes abound in the Miocene 2 deposits of 

 Greece, there were no deer (which are perhaps a somewhat later 

 development), neither were there any bears, but numerous forms 

 of Felidce, Viverrida, Mustdida, and ancestral forms of Hyczna, 

 exactly suited to be the progenitors of the most prevalent types of 

 modern African zoology." 



As mentioned in an earlier chapter, since this passage was 

 written the discovery of the remains of a species of chimpanzee 

 in the Indian Siwaliks has shown quite clearly that the line 

 of communication between India and Africa must have included 

 a wooded tract comparable to the existing equatorial African 

 forest region ; and this would be true even if the migration 



1 Op. dt. p. 291. 



2 The Pikermi beds were formerly universally held to be of Miocene age. 



L. I 



