9J, KBPOBX— 1875. 



7. The Persian Subbegion. 



Of the Persian or " Mediterraneo-Persic " Siibregion, as Mr. Elwes prefers to call 

 it*, which maybe held to embrace European Turkey, Palestine, and Persia, our 

 knovs'ledge was until recently very limited, and even up to the present day remains 

 very imperfect, considering the proximity of the district to Europe, and the many 

 interesting features which it presents. As regards Palestine, Canon Tristram's 

 energetic researches have done much to remove what has long been a scandal to 

 biblical scholars as well as to naturalists. His long-promised ' Synopsis of the 

 Flora and Fauna of Palestine,' however, is not yet issued by the Ray Society, and 

 we must conseqiiently be content with Mr. Tristram's papers on the Birds of the 

 Holy Land in ' The Ibis ' (115) and in the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society 

 (116) and Dr. Giinther's article upon the Reptiles and Fishes collected by Mr. 

 Tristram (117), until the finished work appears. Of Asia Minor and Armenia it 

 maybe said that we are miserably ignorant, Tchihatcheff's desultory accoimt of its 

 Natural History in his ' Asie Mineure' (118) being almost the only authority we 

 have to refer to. Thirty years ago the Zoological Society had two excellent cor- 

 respondents at Erzeroom — Messrs. Dickson and Ross ; and it is a great misfortune 

 that no continuous account was ever prepared of the line collections which they 

 sent home t. 



As regards Persia we may hope very shortly to be much more favourably situ- 

 ated. Mr. W. T. Blanford and Major St. John have recentlj' made large zoological 

 collections in various parts of that coimtry, particularly of birds ; and it is generally 

 imderstood that the report of the Persian Boundary Expedition will contain a 

 complete account of the zoology of Persia from Mr. Blanford's accomplished pen. 

 Hitherto we have had to rely on De Filippi'a ' Viaggio in Persia' (119) and other 

 fragmentary sources of information. 



II. THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. 



This Region I shall speak of, for convenience' sake, under the following si.\ sub- 

 divisions : — 



1. Western Africa, from the Senegal to the Congo. 



2. South-wester n Africa, or Angola and Benguela. 



3. Sotdh Africa, i. e. the Cape colouj' and adjoining districts. 



4. South-eastern Africa, from the Portuguese possessions up to the Somali coast. 



5. North-eastern Africa, including Abyssinia, Nubia^ and Egypt. 



6. Arabia. 



1. WESTEnN Afhica. 



The Mammals of Western Africa are certainly not so well known as they should 

 be ; and there is no one work which gives an accoimt of them, except Temminck's 

 ' Esquisses Zoologiques sur la cote de Guinee ' (1), which is devoted to the collec- 

 tions transmitted to Leyden by Pel, a most energetic and successful Dutch explorer. 

 On the Mammals of Gaboon, Pucherau's article in the French 'Archives duMuseum ' 

 (2), and Du Ohaillu's travels (3) and the literature connected therewith, should be 

 consulted (4, 5, G). • 



The Birds of Western Afiica, on the contrary, have attracted much attention 

 from^ European naturalists since the time when Swainson published his ' Birds of 

 Western Africa ' (7). This work, however, has been quite superseded by Hartlaub'a 

 classical ' System der Ornithologie Westafrica's ' (8), published in 1857. Since 

 that period many memoirs and papers have appeared on the birds of various parts 

 of this district, principally by Cassin, of Philadelphia, Dr. Finsch, of Bremen, and 

 Mr. R. B. Sharpe, of the British Museum, who has paid special attention to the 

 African Ornis, and is understood to be preparing a general work on it. 



For information on the Reptiles and Fishes of West Africa we must refer to 

 Ang. DumMl's memoir (9) in the tenth volume of the 'Archives du Museum 

 d'iiistoire Naturelle,' fomided on the collections in the Paris Museum. 



* Cf. P. Z. S. 1873, p. 647. 



+ See notices of their collections in P. Z. S. 1839, 1842, and 1844. 



