EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA. 95 
other ; a wise dispensation of Providence— since, were 
they limited to more circumscribed bounds, the animals 
upon which they feed would soon be exterminated. 
(132.) If we are to consider Central Africa as forming 
part of this division of the continent,—which cannot, 
in the present state of knowledge, be strictly defined,— 
we may here observe, that in Abyssinia, and those 
kingdoms which border upon Central and Northern 
Africa, the elephant and the rhinoceros are not uncom- 
mon, while the Camelopardalis antiquorum Sw., or the 
northern giraffe, has recently been detected by Mr, 
Ruppel, whose elaborate observations have enabled us 
to characterise it as a distinct species from the giraffe 
of Southern Africa (C. australis Sw.). The lion of the 
ancients (Leo Africanus Sw.), in like manner, is a spe- 
cies peculiar to these regions. 
(133.) The quadrupeds of Nubia, from the proxi. 
mity of that kingdom to the more equinoctial latitudes, 
may be also comprehended in this division; yet they 
are more allied to those of Egypt than to the species of 
“Southern Africa. Four sorts of antelopes are enumer- 
ated by Mr. Ruppel ; who also describes four peculiar 
kinds of wild dogs, or rather foxes, as natives of the 
Kordofan deserts. These countries seem not to be in- 
habited by any of the quadrupeds of the western 
coast, while as many are common to Egypt and Abys- 
sinia: it appears, on the whole, to belong more cor- 
rectly to Northern Africa. 
(134.) The ornithological peculiarities of tropical 
Africa are very striking, when compared with those of the 
northern parts. The birds are not only more numerous, 
and more beautiful, but exhibit many remarkable and 
peculiar genera, particularly among the perching tribes. 
The rapacious birds do not appear so numerous as 
under the corresponding latitudes of America. Vultures 
seem to be rare ; since, in all probability, the removal 
of putrid matter is more expeditiously performed by the 
hyenas. On the coast of Guinea, there is a noble Lird, 
