18671882] WALLACE'S BOOK 15 



How plain a thing is, when it is once pointed out ! What Letter 391 

 a wonderful case is that of Celebes : I am glad that you 

 have slightly modified your views with respect to Africa. 1 

 And this leads me to say that I cannot swallow the so-called 

 continent of Lemuria i.e., the direct connection of Africa 

 and Ceylon. 2 The facts do not seem to me many and 

 strong enough to justify so immense a change of level. 

 Moreover, Mauritius and the other islands appear to me 

 oceanic in character. But do not suppose that I place my 

 judgment on this subject on a level with yours. A wonder- 

 fully good paper was published about a year ago on India, 

 in the Geolog. Journal, I think by Blanford. 3 Ramsay 

 agreed with me that it was one of the best published for a 

 long time. The author shows that India has been a continent 



little lectures which on rare occasions he would give to a visitor interested 

 in Natural History. In Mr. Wallace's book the meaning of the ocelli 

 comes in by the way, in the explanation of Plate IX., "A Malayan Forest 

 with some of its peculiar Birds." Mr. Wallace (vol. i., p. 340) points out 

 that the head of the Argus pheasant is, during the display of the wings, 

 concealed from the view of a spectator in front, and this accounts for the 

 absence of bright colour on the head a most unusual point in a pheasant. 

 The case is described as a " remarkable confirmation of Mr. Darwin's 

 views, that gaily coloured plumes are developed in the male bird for the 

 purpose of attractive display." For the difference of opinion between the 

 two naturalists on the broad question of coloration see Life and Letters, 

 III., p. 123. See Letters 440-453, pp. 72 et seq. 



1 " I think this must refer to the following passage in Geog. Dist. of 

 Animals, Vol. I., pp. 286-7. 'At this period (Miocene) Madagascar was 

 no doubt united with Africa, and helped to form a great southern continent 

 which must at one time have extended eastward as far as Southern India 

 and Ceylon; and over the whole of this the lemurine type no doubt 

 prevailed.' At the time this was written I had not paid so much attention 

 to islands, and in my Island Life I have given ample reasons for my 

 belief that the evidence of extinct animals does not require any direct 

 connection between Southern India and Africa." Note by Mr. Wallace. 



2 See Geog. Dist., I., p. 76. The name Lemuria was proposed by Mr. 

 Sclater for an imaginary submerged continent extending from Madagascar 

 to Ceylon and Sumatra. Mr. Wallace points out that if we confine our- 

 selves to facts Lemuria is reduced to Madagascar, which he makes a 

 subdivision of the Ethiopian Region. 



3 H. F. Blanford "On the Age and Correlations of the Plant-bearing 

 Series of India and the Former Existence of an Indo-Oceanic Continent " 

 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., XXXI., 1875, p. 5 19). The name Gondwana-Land 

 was subsequently suggested by Professor Suess for this Indo-Oceanic 



