CHAP. XI.] 



THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. 



277 



Strigid^e. 



44. Athene 



45. Scops 



Rallid^;. 



46. Rallus 



47. Porzana 



ScOLOPACIDjE. 



48. Gallinago 



Species. 

 1 

 1 



PlATALEIDjE. Species. 



49. Ibis 1 



PODICIPID.E. 



50. Podiceps ... ... 1 



Total peculiar species of Eth. \ , fi 

 or Or. genera / 



Species of Birds common to Madagascar and Africa or Asia. 



1. Cisticola cursitans. 



2. Corvus scapulatus. 



3. Crithagra canicollis. 



4. Merops superciliosus. 



5. Collocalia t'uciphaga. 



6. 03na capensis. 



7. Aplopelia tympanistria. 



8. Falco minor. 



9. Falco concolor. 



10. Milvus aegyptius. 



11. Milvus migrans. 



12. Strix flammea. 



These three tables show us an amount of speciality hardly to 

 be found in the birds of any other part of the globe. Out of 

 111 land-birds in Madagascar, only 12 are identical with species 

 inhabiting the adjacent continents, and most of these belong to 

 powerful-winged, or wide-ranging forms, which probably now 

 often pass from one country to the other. The peculiar species 

 — 49 land-birds and 7 waders, or aquatics — are mostly well- 

 marked forms of African genera. There are, however, several 

 genera (marked by italics) which have Oriental or Palsearctic 

 affinities, but not African, viz. — Copsychus, Hypsijxics, Hypherpes, 

 Alcctrmnas, and Margaroperdix. These indicate a closer ap- 

 proximation to the Malay countries than now exists. 



The table of 33 peculiar genera is of great interest. Most of 

 these are well-marked forms, belonging to families which are 

 fully developed in Africa; though it is singular that not 

 one of the exclusively African families is represented in 

 any way in Madagascar. Others, however, are of remote or 

 altogether doubtful affinities. Sittidcc is Oriental and Palaearctic, 

 but not Ethiopian. Oxylahes and Mystacomis are of doubtful 

 affinities. Artamia and Cyanolanius still more so, and it is 

 quite undecided what family they belong to. Calicalicus is 

 almost equally obscure. Neodrepanis, one of the most recent 

 discoveries, seems to connect the Nectariniidae with the Pacific 



