lusively African. A few of
the species inhabiting the northern confines of this continent, such as
the dromedary, lion, and jackall, are also common to Asia; and a much
larger number of _forms_ belong equally to the great Asiatic province,
the species being distinct. The elephant, for example, of Africa is
smaller, has a rounder head, and larger ears than the Indian one, and
has only three instead of four nails on each hind foot. In like manner,
not one of three African species of Rhinoceros agrees with one of the
three Indian kinds.

3dly. The _Southern_ region of _Africa_, where that continent extends
into the temperate zone, constitutes another separate zoological
province, surrounded as it is on three sides by the ocean, and cut off
from the countries of milder climate in the northern hemisphere, by the
intervening torrid zone. In many instances, this region contains the
same genera which are found in temperate climates to the northward of
the line: but then the southern are different from the northern species.
Thus, in the south we find the quagga and the zebra; in the north, the
horse, the ass, and the jiggetai of Asia.

The south of Africa is spread out into fine level plains from the tropic
to the Cape. In this region, says Pennant, besides the horse genus, of
which five species have been found, there are also peculiar species of
rhinoceros, the hog, and the hyrax, among pachydermatous races; and
amongst the ruminating, the Cape buffalo, and a variety of remarkable
antelopes, as the springbok, the oryx, the gnou, the leucophoa, the
pygarga, and several others.[874]

4thly. The assemblage of quadrupeds in _Madagascar_ affords a striking
illustration of the laws before alluded to, as governing the
distribution of species in islands. Separated from Africa by the
Mozambique channel, which is 300 miles wide, Madagascar forms, with two
or three small islands in its immediate vicinity, a zoological province
by itself, all the species except one, and nearly all the genera, being
peculiar. The only exception consists of a small insectivorous quadruped
(_Centetes_), found also in the Mauritius, to which place it is supposed
to have been taken in ships. The most characteristic feature of this
remarkable fauna consists in the number of quadrumana of the Lemur
family, no less than six genera of these monkeys being exclusively met
with in this island, and a seventh genus of the same, called _Galago_,
which alone has any fo