moderate elevation. The eastern portion reaches from about the second cataract of the Nile, or perhaps from about the parallel of 20° N. Latitude, down to about 20° S. Latitude, and from the east coast to where the great forest region commences, or to Lake Tanganyika and about the meridian of 28° to 30° E. Longitude. The greater part of this tract is a lofty plateau.

The surface of all this sub-region is generally open, covered with a vegetation of high grasses or thorny shrubs, with scattered trees and isolated patches of forest in favourable situations. The only parts where extensive continuous forests occur, are on the eastern and western slopes of the great Abyssinian plateau, and on the Mozambique coast from Zanzibar to Sofala. The whole of this great district has one general zoological character. Many species range from Senegal to Abyssinia, others from Abyssinia to the Zambesi, and a few, as Mungos fasciatus and Phacocharus aethiopicus, range over the entire sub-region. Fennecus, Ictonyx, and several genera of antelopes, characterise every part of it, as do many genera of birds. Coracias nævia, Corythornis cyanostigma, Tockus nasutus, T. erythrorhynchus, Parus leucopterus, Buphaga africana, Vidua paradisea, are examples of species, which are found in the Gambia, Abyssinia and South East Africa, but not in the West African sub-region; and considering how very little is known of the natural history of the country immediately south of the Sahara, it may well be supposed that these are only a small portion of the species really common to the whole area in question, and which prove its fundamental unity.

Although this sub-region is so extensive and so generally uniform in physical features, it is by far the least peculiar part of Africa. It possesses, of course, all those wide-spread Ethiopian types which inhabit every part of the region, but it has hardly any special features of its own. The few genera which are peculiar to it have generally a limited range, and for the most part belong, either to the isolated mountain-plateau of Abyssinia which is almost as much Palearctic as Ethiopian, or to the woody districts of Mozambique where the fauna has more of a West or South African character.

Mammalia. The only forms of Mammalia peculiar to this sub-region are Theropithecus, one of the Cynopithecida confined to Abyssinia; Petrodromus and Rhynchocyon, belonging to the insectivorous Macroscelididæ, have only been found in Mozambique; the Antelopine genus Neotragus, from Abyssinia southward; Saccostomus and Pelomys genera of Muridæ inhabiting Mozambique; Heterocephalus from Abyssinia, and Heliophobius from Mozambique, belonging to the Spalacida; and Pectinator from Abyssinia, belonging to the Octodontidæ. Cynocephalus, Rhinoceros, Camelopardalis, and antelopes of the genera Oryx, Cervicapra, Kobus, Nanotragus, Cephalophus, Hippotragus, Alcephalus, and Catoblepas, are characteristic; as well as Felis, Hyana, and numerous civets and ichneumons.

Birds.-Peculiar forms of birds are hardly to be found here; we only meet with two-Hypocolius, a genus of shrikes in Abyssinia; and Balaniceps, the great boat-billed heron of the Upper Nile. Yet throughout the country birds are abundant, and most of the typical Ethiopian forms are well represented.

Reptiles. Of reptiles, the only peculiar forms recorded are Xenocalamus, a genus of snakes, belonging to the Calamariidæ ; and Pythonodipsas, one of the Dipsadida, both from the Zambesi; and among lizards, Pisturus, one of the Geckotidæ, from Abyssinia.

Amphibia and Fishes.-There are no peculiar forms of amphibia or of fresh-water fishes.

Insects. Insects are almost equally unproductive of peculiar forms. Among butterflies we have Abantis, one of the Hesperidæ, from Mozambique; and in Coleoptera, 2 genera of Cicindelidæ, 8 of Carabidæ, 1 or 2 of Cetoniidæ, and about half-a-dozen of Longicorns: a mere nothing, as we shall see, compared with the hosts of peculiar genera that characterise each of the other subregions. Neither do land-shells appear to present any peculiar forms.

The fact that so very few special types characterise the extensive area now under consideration is very noteworthy. It justifies us in uniting this large and widespread tract of country as forming essentially but one sub-division of the great Ethiopian