III. 



The " Exposition de Madagascar " at the 



Jardin des Plant es. 



THE Professors at the Jardin des Plantes have taken the oppor- 

 tunity of the present enthusiasm of the French about their 

 " new Colony " of Madagascar to put together a collection of the 

 natural history of that island which well illustrates its many strange 

 and peculiar features. The " Exposition de Madagascar " has been 

 arranged in two rooms in the new gallery of the Musee d'Histoire 

 Naturelle, under the supervision, we believe, of Mr. Alfred Grandidier, 

 whose name is well known as that of our chief scientific authority upon 

 the island. 



Commencing with the mammals, the first object that claims 

 attention is the splendid series of lemurs — one of the most 

 characteristic families of the Malagasy mammal-fauna. All the 

 numerous species of this group are illustrated by one or more 

 specimens, and the exact range of all the species, which are in most 

 cases representative of each other in different districts, is shown in a 

 small map attached to it. The carnivores and rodents succeed, and 

 are treated of in a similar manner. The collection of birds, which 

 follows next, is also very complete, the French National Museum 

 being unrivalled as regards its wealth in this branch of the Madagascar 

 fauna. It is arranged according to the system and nomenclature of 

 the splendid volumes on the birds of the island which Mr. Grandidier 

 has published in his great work. Among the reptiles, the chameleons 

 claim particular notice, as specially characteristic of the animal life of 

 Madagascar. Of these strange arboreal lizards, of which some fifty 

 or sixty are known to science, thirty-one are found in various parts of 

 Madagascar and its adjacent islands. All are here exhibited, from 

 the gigantic Chamcvleon oustaleti, with its body a foot long, to the 

 minute Broohcsia tuberculata, scarcely an inch in length. With the 

 fresh-water fishes, which follow the reptiles, are concluded the series 

 of Madagascar vertebrates, and then come the land-shells, insects, and 

 other invertebrates. 



The extinct fauna of Madagascar, in which so many important 

 discoveries have recently been made, is not less well illustrated in the 

 " Exposition " than the modern phase of life. In the first place may 



