108 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
species as the British. It must be remembered, how- 
ever, that all these nocturnal birds have a most exten - 
sive range, not only over Europe and Asia, but some 
have been recently detected in Northern America, while 
several others are unknown out of South Africa. 
(153.) The insectivorous birds, in their genera, differ 
not from those generally dispersed to the south of the 
line: one of the shrikes, the wood-chat, is precisely the 
same as ours; but another (Lanius equinoctialis Sw.), 
confounded by authors with the red-backed shrike, is 
in reality distinct. The Drongo shrikes, called by the 
Dutch colonists, from their blacx colour, Devil-birds, as 
we have already mentioned, are found also in Western 
Africa; other species occur in India; and one (Ed. 
australis Sw.) is peculiar to New Holland. The 
curious birds called caterpillar-catchers (Ceblepyrine 
Sw.), from their feeding almost entirely on those soft 
insects, occur very sparingly ; since their chief metro- 
polis is the opposite land of Australia: of this genus, no 
typical examples have yet reached us from Sierra Leone, 
but the kindred genus Phenicornis* appears to be their 
representatives towards the equinoctial line. The fly- 
catchers of all these latitudes are not only of the same 
genera ; but some, as the Paradise, or long-tailed fly- 
catcher, are of precisely the same species as those of India. 
(154.) Many of the perching birds are of beautiful 
plumage and others are no less remarkable for their 
iy wonderful instinct. The crested 
kingfisher (Alcedo cristata L.) 
(fig. 49.), is nearly the smallest, 
and certainly the most elegant, 
of its congeners. The South 
African sun-birds (Cinnyris 
Cuv.) rival those of India and 
of the Gambia in the brilliancy 
of their colours, while the more 
chaste but elegant green and 
silky plumage of the couracco 
(Corythaix lig.) renders these 
* Zool. Ilustrations, ii. pl. 52. 
