AFRICAN CrVET-CAT. 



CHAPTER III 



The Mammals of Ethiopian Africa 



In the course of the preceding chapter it has been incidentally mentioned that for 

 zoological purposes it is convenient to designate the whole of that portion of the 

 continent lying south of the northern tropic as Ethiopian Africa. Ethiopian Africa, 

 together with the south of Arabia, forms indeed a distinct zoological region, whose 

 fauna presents a most remarkable difference from that of northern Africa and the 

 other Mediterranean countries. Except where a few of them have entered it to a 

 certain extent along the course of the Nile, we note in the Ethiopian region the 

 complete absence of wolves, bears, deer, wild goats, wild sheep, wild cattle (other 

 than buffaloes), and true wild horses and wild swine. On the other hand, we here 

 — and here only ■ — meet with gorillas, chimpanzis, guereza monkeys, galagos, 

 hunting-dogs, aard-wolves, spotted hyaenas, giraffes, okapis, elands, gnus, harte- 

 beests (of which, like the oryx group, one species has effected an entrance into 

 northern Africa), gemsbuck and other oryx, sable antelope, klipspringer, duiker- 

 bok, and a host of other peculiar types of antelopes, together with hippopotamuses, 

 wart-hogs, bush-pigs, forest-hogs, zebras and quaggas, smooth-skinned rhinoceroses, 

 tree-hyraxes, lozenge-toothed elephants, ant-bears, and secretary-birds. If smaller 

 forms were included, such as the golden moles and the curious otter-shrews, the 

 list might be almost indefinitely extended, but the animals here mentioned are 



