AFRICA AND ITS ANIMALS 141 
frequent the forest districts. But perhaps the strangest 
mammal that may be regarded as characteristic of Africa 
as a whole is the aard-vark (Orycteropus), commonly known 
to the colonists as the ant-pig. It is a strangely isolated 
creature, having at the present day no near relations, 
either poor or otherwise. 
The African buffaloes, with their several races or species, 
also belong to a type quite peculiar to the continent. To ° 
a great extent the ostrich is characteristic of Africa and 
Arabia, although there is evidence to show that it formerly 
enjoyed a considerable range in parts of Asia. 
The above are only a few of the more striking instances 
showing how different are the animals of Africa as a whole 
from those of the rest of the world. Many others might be 
added, but they would only weary my readers. Of course, . 
there are many groups, like the cats, common to other 
countries, the lion and the leopard being found alike in 
Africa and India; but such do not detract from the pecu- 
liarity of the African fauna as a whole. And here it may | 
be mentioned that a large proportion of the types now 
peculiar to the Dark Continent once had a much wider 
geographical range, fossil remains of baboons, giraffes, 
hippopotamuses, ostriches, antelopes of an African type, 
and not improbably zebras, having been discovered in the 
Tertiary deposits of India. 
But if the animals of Africa as a whole stand out in 
marked contrast to those of the rest of the world, much 
more is this the case when those characteristic of certain 
districts of that huge continent are alone taken into con- 
sideration. And most especially is this the case with the 
inhabitants of the great tropical forest districts extending 
from the west coast far into the interior of the continent— 
reaching, in fact, the watershed between the basins of the 
