42 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part. I. 



only found elsewhere in the Rocky Mountains of North America, 

 while the beautiful genus Thais of the south of Europe and 

 Sericinus of North China are equally remarkable. Among 

 other insects we can only now refer to the great family of 

 Carabidce, or predaceous ground-beetles, which are immensely 

 numerous in this region, there being about fifty peculiar genera ; 

 while the large and handsome genus Carabus, with its allies 

 Procerus and Procrustes, containing nearly 300 species, is almost 

 wholly confined to this region, and would alone serve to distin- 

 guish it zoologically from all other parts of the globe. 



Having given so full an exposition of the facts which deter- 

 mine the extent and boundaries of the Palgearctic region, there 

 is less need of entering into much detail as regards the other 

 regions of the Eastern Hemisphere ; their boundaries being 

 easily defined, while their forms of animal life are well marked 

 and strongly contrasted. 



Definition and Characteristic Groups of the Ethiopian Region- 

 — The Ethiopian region consists of all tropical and south 

 Africa, to which is appended the large island of Madagascar and 

 the Mascarene Islands to the east and north of it, though these 

 differ materially from the continent, and will have to be dis- 

 cussed in a separate chapter. For the present, then, we v/ill 

 take Africa south of the tropic of Cancer, and consider how 

 far its animals are distinct from those of the Palsearctic region. 



Taking first the mammalia, we find the following remarkable 

 animals at once separating it from the Palsearctic and every other 

 region. The gorilla and chimpanzee, the baboons, numerous 

 lemurs, the lion, the spotted hyaena, the aard-wolf and hysena - 

 dog, zebras, the hippopotamus, giraffe, and more than seventy 

 peculiar antelopes. Here we have a wonderful collection of large 

 and peculiar quadrupeds, but the Ethiopian region is also charac- 

 terised by the absence of others which are not only abundant in 

 the Palsearctic region but in many tropical regions as well. The 

 most remarkable of these deficiencies are the bears, the deer, 

 and wild oxen, all of which abound in the tropical parts of Asia 

 while bears and deer extend into both North and South America. 

 .Besides the large and conspicuous animals mentioned above, 



