EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA. BIRDS. 97 



representatives in tropical America ; but those with a 

 short bill {Collar is Cuv.) have likewise been found in 

 New Holland. In the elegant family of bee-eaters 

 {Merops), Western Africa is peculiarly rich ; more than 

 two thirds of the species already known having come 

 from thence. But the glory of A^'^estern Africa is the 

 magnificent plantain-eater (Musophaga violacea), nearly 

 the size of a crow, with wings of the most lovely 

 crimson, glossed with purple. This rare bird seems 

 only to have been met with in the interior of Guinea. 

 Three or four others, belonging to the same natural 

 family, are exclusive natives of these regions. 



(136.) The gallinaceous order of birds, so nume- 

 rous towards the equinoctial line in India, and even in 

 America, are found but sparingly on the African con- 

 tinent. The ostrich is well known to be the largest ; 

 and probably should be ranked with the giraffe, as more 

 characteristic of Central Africa, as it lives only in the 

 deserts, or on sandy plains. It has not been detected on 

 the western coast, where the largest birds of this order 

 are the Guinea fowls : the most common of these spe- 

 cies, long domesticated in Europe, is well known : 

 these birds, in a state of nature, associate in flocks of 

 two or three hundred, and chiefly frequent the marshes 

 and morasses which stretch along the banks of the 

 western rivers. Most of the partridges are small ; and 

 many belong more correctly to the genus Pterocles, or 

 the sand-grouse. 



(137.) The only birds common to the whole extent 

 of the African continent, and whose migrations are 

 even extended to the middle of Europe, are the Eu- 

 ropean bee-eater, the golden oriole, the common roller, 

 and the European roller. To enumerate the peculiar 

 species, however, which may characterise certain coun- 

 tries, would far exceed our hmits. It is sufficient that 

 any particular geographic range is found to contain 

 peculiar genera or forms of animals, by which it 

 may be recognised, and by which it is stamped 

 with a tangible character. The goatsuckers are well 



H 



