THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. 



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The Ethiopian Region. 



The Ethiopian region, consisting of Africa south of 

 the Tropic of Cancer with Madagascar, is of very- 

 small area compared with the Palsearctic region ; yet 

 owing to the absence of extreme climates, and the 

 tropical luxuriance of a considerable portion of its 

 surface, it supports a greater number and variety of 

 large animals than any other part of the globe of equal 

 extent. Much of the speciality of the region is, how- 

 ever, due to the rich and isolated fauna of Madagascar, 

 the peculiarities of which may be set aside till we come 

 to discuss the past history of the Ethiopian region. 



Considering then, first, the zoological features of 

 tropical and southern Africa alone, we find a number 

 of very peculiar forms of mammalia. Such are the 

 golden moles, the Potamogale, and the elephant-shrews 

 among Insectivora ; the hippopotami and the giraffes, 

 among Ungulata ; the hysena-like Proteles (Aard-wolf), 

 and Lycaon (hysena-dog), among Carnivora ; and the 

 Aard-varks (Orycteropus) among Edentata. These are 

 all peculiar ; but among highly characteristic forms are 

 the baboons, and several genera of monkeys and apes ; 

 several peculiar Lemurs ; a great variety of the civet- 

 family (Viverridse), and of rodents ; peculiar genera of 

 swine (Potamochserus and Phacochserus), and a greater 

 abundance and variety of antelopes than are to be found 

 in all the other regions combined. But the Ethiopian 

 region is strikingly distinguished from all others, not 

 only by possessing many peculiar forms, but by the 

 absence of a number of common and widely distributed 



