360 Wonders of the Bird World 



The West African Sub-Region is an extremely interest- 

 ing one, from the point of view of the Zoologist. It is the 

 land of the Gorilla, the Chimpanzee, and the Kooloo-Kamba, 

 one of whose race has become immortalized as " Sally " in 

 the Zoological Gardens. Numbers of genera and species 

 of birds are peculiar to this Sub-Region, and above all 

 others, it contains certain species of a Malayan type, the 

 nearest allies of which are to be sought for in the Indian 

 and Indo-Malayan regions. Thus we find in West Africa 

 species of the Malayan genus Tiirdinus, one of the Babbling- 

 Thrushes, a Pitta, and a Baca. 



The Ant-Thrushes {Pittidce) are an Eastern type of bird, 

 occurring in the Indian Peninsula and the Himalaj'as east- 

 wards to China and Formosa, and represented by numerous 

 species throughout the Malayan Archipelago as far as New 

 Guinea and Australia. The Angola Pitta {P. aiigo/ensis) 

 occurs throughout the West African Sub-Region, but has 

 no kith or kin in any other part of the Ethiopian Region, 

 and finds no relation whatever till we come to the Indian 

 Peninsula and Ceylon. The Cuckoo-Falcon of West 

 Africa {Ba:;a cuadoides) is an inhabitant of the entire forest- 

 region as above defined. 



The genus Basa has a distribution of the highest interest, 

 for in the Ethiopian Region we find the West African Baza 

 cuadoides, replaced in S. E. Africa (from Natal to Nyasa- 

 land) by B. verreaiixi, and in Madagascar \>y B. niadagas- 

 cariensis. Then we cross the Indian Ocean and take up 

 the distribution of the genus, finding in the hills of Ceylon 

 B. lophotes, which also inhabits the Eastern Himalayas 

 and the Burmese countries. Thence throughout the 

 islands of the Malay Archipelago even to Northern Australia 

 are distributed quite a number of species of Cuckoo- 

 Falcons, each of them restricted in habitat to a single 

 island or group of islands. 



Then, again, in West Africa we find many representatives 



