strength and agility. The steenbock (A. rupestris) · likewise dwells among the rocks. It is found near Algoa Bay, but is now rare in the Cape colony. The vlackti steenbock (A. rufescens) is among the most beautiful of the smaller antelopes of Africa. The name of vlackti is bestowed upon it, in consequence of its inhabiting the plains or open country. The bush-antelope (A. silvicultrix) is found at Sierra Leone, where it is called the bush-goat. It usually quits its cover in search of food about sunrise. The four-tufted antelope (A. quadriscopa) is a native of Senegal. The duicker bock (A. mergens) is a timid species, fearful of thunder and other unaccustomed sounds. It inhabits bushes, and rises every now and then upon its hind legs for the sake of surveying its vicinity. It then stoops down and darts under cover, from which custom it has no doubt obtained the name of duicker, or the stooper. The guevei (A. pygmæa) consists of two well-marked varieties, if two distinct species have not been confounded under a single name. At present we shall allude only to the smaller, which is remarkable for its diminutive size. A female in Bullock's Museum scarcely exceeded the general dimensions of a Norway rat, and the legs were no thicker than a goose's quill. The gueveis are brought from the coast of Guinea, and are sometimes observed to occur in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope.

One of the largest of the African antelopes is the bubale (A. bubalis of Pallas), equal in size to a stag. It congregates in troops, among which frequent and sometimes fatal combats take place. This species was well known to the ancients, and is re

presented among the hieroglyphical figures of the temples of Upper Egypt. It inhabits Barbary and the Great Desert of Northern Africa.

We may here mention the gnu, as an animal classed by Sparrman and others among the antelopes. It assembles in large herds among the southern, and probably the central deserts of Africa. It is not now found nearer the Cape than the great Karroo district. Of this animal there appears to be more species than one.

The next group which demands our notice is the bovine tribe, including all the larger kinds of horned cattle. Of these, the only species peculiar to Africa is the Bos caffer, or Cape buffalo, the qu'araho of the Hottentots, a fierce and vindictive animal of great strength. This species is characterised by the dark rufous colour of its horns, which spread horizontally over the summit of the head, with their beams bent down laterally, and the points turned up. They are from eight to ten inches broad at the base, and divided only by a slight groove, extremely ponderous, cellular near the root, and five feet long, measured from tip to tip along the curves. The hide is black and almost naked, especially in old animals. This buffalo lives in herds, or small families, in the brushwood and open forests of Caffraria. According to Sparrman, he is not content with simply killing the person whom he attacks, but he stands over him for some time in order to trample him with his hoofs and heels, at the same time crushing him with his knees, and tearing to pieces and mangling his whole body, and finally stripping off the skin

with his tongue. The surest way to escape is, if possible, to ride up a hill, as the great bulk of the buffalo's body, like that of the elephant, is a weight sufficient to prevent his vying with the slender and fine-limbed horse in swiftness. It is said, however, that, in going down hill, this formidable animal gets on much faster than the horse.

The goat and sheep tribe, so valuable, especially the latter, to the human race, present respectively a species peculiar to the continent of Africa. The Egyptian goat, by some however regarded as nothing more than a variety of the domestic breed, is distinguished by the great convexity of its facial line, and a depression between the face and the forehead. The lower jaw projects beyond the upper; the ears are long and flat, and the horns are either very small, and arched slightly backwards, or are entirely wanting. The female scarcely differs from the male in external appearance, with the exception of the straighter outline of the face. It inhabits Upper Egypt. The other animal above alluded to is called the bearded sheep (Ovis tragelaphus). It inhabits the desert steeps of Barbary and the mountainous portions of Egypt.

We have now enumerated, with occasional brief descriptions and interspersed notices of their history and habits, the greater proportion of the more remarkable quadrupeds of Africa. To extend the list would have been both easy and agreeable; but we trust that the preceding sketch will suffice to exhibit the prevailing and peculiar features of this

branch of African zoology, even though our confined limits should have excluded many minor details, not in themselves devoid of interest, though unessential to our present undertaking. The great preponderance of the antelope tribe, the existence of the giraffe and the hippopotamus, and the numerous troops of equine animals, such as the zebra and the quagga, may be stated as forming the principal zoological characters of this extensive continent.

CHAPTER XIX.

Natural History of the Birds of Africa.

WE shall next take a rapid survey of some other departments of the natural history of Africa; and continuing, as we have commenced, with a certain degree of systematic arrangement, the second great class which attracts the attention of the traveller is that of birds.

race.

The arid and wide-spread plains which compose so large a portion of this continent, are unfavourable to the existence and multiplication of the feathered Yet the more umbrageous banks of rivers, the extensive forests which here and there prevail to check the drifting of the desert-sand, and those green and grateful oases which towards evening cast their far shadows across a waterless land, harbour in their cool recesses many a gorgeous form of feathered life. Nor can we suppose that the mountain-summits, and those Sierras which occasionally interrupt the horizontal view of the bleached wilderness, are uninhabited by birds of prey, eagleeyed and swift of wing, there perched securely amid their rocky fortresses, but ever ready to descend with eager cry, when the blast of the simoom overwhelms the exhausted caravan, or the weary camel "ship