200 A VISIT TO THE MONBUTTU. 



of cavities in the interior of the pieces, the quality of the 

 product was become in every respect faultless. Samples of 

 palm-oil were collected to send to the north. The further 

 cultivation of this product is to be attempted in Makraka. 



A residence of nine days filled in with official occupation 

 is naturally insufficient for the acquisition of exhausting 

 notes concerning a country and its inhabitants. As, however, 

 both the geography and ethnology of this country have been 

 worthily represented through the industrious work of Junker 

 and Casati, I was all the more anxious to devote every free 

 moment to collecting, in order at least to obtain an insight into 

 the hitherto totally unknown fauna of the land. If Dr. Schwein- 

 furth's botanical researches had already proved that, in regard 

 to vegetation, Monbuttu forms the transition from the north-east 

 African region to that of tropical west Africa, the supposition still 

 needed proof as far as concerned its fauna. Schweinfurth's 

 list of animals certainly contains Troglodytes niger and Potamo- 

 chcerus penicillatus, but the rest are animals of much wider 

 distribution over the continent. Though I may not have 

 succeeded in enriching this list very largely, there are at least 

 indications to be derived from the discovery of an entirely black 

 Cercopithecus, which occurs in addition to Cercopithecus sabceus, 

 a small Galago, an Anomalurus, an Atherura, a new genet, a 

 flat-tailed squirrel, and quite a large number of other new 

 Rodents. Birds are even more abundant. Forms of so decided 

 a character as the Turacus, Musophaga, Corythaix, Amblyospiza, 

 Spermospiza, Tricholasma, and several Trichophorus, as well as 

 quite a list of Nectarinidse unknown in the north, determine 

 the ornithological position of the country. As the same holds 

 good in regard to the amphibians and reptiles, and also, though 

 less completely, to the Lepidoptera which have been collected, 

 I believe I may be permitted to hold that Monbuttu, both in 

 respect to its fauna and flora, presents a transition to the 

 tropical west, the " West African sub-region of Wallace." The 

 presence of north-easterly and easterly species is occasioned by 

 the steppe zone extending into the proper forest zone. Further 

 investigations will help to fix exactly the line of demarcation 

 in special regions. 



I was not able to learn anything of Monbuttu's possible 



