GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 353 



these there are no fewer than 35 peculiar genera. Great as is this 

 amount of peculiarity, the present writer believes it to be rather 

 understated than exaggerated ; but it is sufficient to shew all that 

 is here needed, though he would add that, in his opinion, at least 

 3 of the genei'a, Euryceros, Fhile^pitta, and Mesites, must be regarded 

 as forming the types of as many distinct Families, the first belong- 

 ing to the normal Acromyodian Fasseres, the second to the Oligo- 

 myodian section of the same Order, and the third, though of kin to 

 the Piollidse (Rail), can hardly be kept in that Family. It is quite 

 possible too that FalcitUa, Avhich apparently had allies in Fregilupus 

 and Necropsar (both recently extinct) of the Mascarene Islands, 

 though commonly referred to the Sturnidse (Starling), and 

 Brachyptoracias, with Atelomis and GeoUastes, which are generally 

 included among the CorarAidx (Roller), should be removed from 

 those Families, and recognized as forming distinct Families, which 

 Avould have to take the names of Fregilupidse and Brachypteraciidm 

 respectively, while EeUodilus is an Owl, belonging to the Strigine 

 Family, Aluconidse, which hitherto had but one known repre- 

 sentative, the widely-spread Aliico flammeus. But the Avifauna 

 of Madagascar is not entirely composed of such singularities as 

 these. We have homely genera, even among the true Fasseres, 

 occurring there — such as Alauda, Acrocephalus, Moiacilla, and 

 Fraticola, while the Cisticola madagascariensis is only distinguishable 

 from the well-known Fan-tailed Warbler, C. schoenicola, of Europe, 

 Africa and India, by its rather darker coloration. But there are 

 also species, though not Passerine, which are absolutely identical 

 with those of Britain — Aluco flammeus, Coturnix communis, F&rzana 

 pygmsea, and Fodicipes fluviatilis — all of them common and apparently 

 resident in the island. 



The Comoros, as might be expected, are influenced by their 

 proximity to the African continent. The latest list of their Fauna, 

 by Messrs. A. Milne-Edwards and Oustalet^ in 1888 accords them 

 79 species or local races, of which 59 are Land-birds — but at 

 least 5 of these have certainly been imported, and one is in- 

 cluded by mistake. Of the remainder 2 are common to South 

 Africa, 22 to Madagascar, and 29 seem to be peculiar, one forming a 

 peculiar genus, but nearly all have their nearest allies in Madagascar, 

 and with them have doubtless a common ancestry, and indeed 

 the Comoro Islands furnish one of the best examples in the 

 world where species may be seen in the process, so to speak, of 

 specification. 



^ Nouv. Arch, du Musium, ser. 2, x. jjp. 219-298, pis. iv.-ix. Earlier notices 

 by the same naturalists are in Cmnptes Rendus, ci. pp. 218-222, and Ann. Sc. 

 Nat. ser. 7, ii. pp. 213-238 ; and still earlier, by other hands, are Sclater, Ibis, 

 1864, p. 292 ; E. Newton, Proc. ZooL Soc. 1877, pp. 295-302, pis. xxxiii. xxxiv. ; 

 and Shelley, 0^. cit. 1879, pp. 673-679. 



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