III. 



Recent Researches on the Fauna and Flora 

 of Madagascar. 



'THE remarkable faunal riches of this African island have been 

 ^ chiefly made known in M. Grandidier's volumes, but there is 

 still much material at Paris lost to science foi want of someone 

 energetic enough to work it out. Particularly so is this the case with 

 the Mammalia, and the delay in publication is not only vexatious to 

 the zoologist, but allows others to describe as new, recent accessions, 

 of which specimens are probably buried in Grandidier's collections.^ 

 The practice, too, of issuing volumes of plates unaccompanied by 

 descriptions, may, perhaps, be useful when dealing with the larger 

 animals, but is absolutely valueless (even to secure priority) for insects 

 or plants in which so much depends on microscopic characters, and 

 can only lead to endless confusion in nomenclature. 



The latest information about the Madagascar fauna as a whole 

 may be found in chapter xix. of Wallace's " Island Life " (ed. 2, 

 1892) ; but since that time, thanks to the liberal-handedness of Mr. 

 Grose Smith and Mr. Walter Rothschild, material as remarkable for 

 its abundance as for the peculiar value of the specimens has been 

 received in this country ; nor must it be forgotten that other 

 workers, such as the Rev. R. Baron and M. Gautier, are largely 

 interesting themselves in the accumulation of material which, though 

 less in quantity, is every bit as valuable as the collection made by 

 Mr. Last. Indeed, one may safely say that any remains, whether 

 fossil or recent, if properly localised and carefully packed, add new 

 light to our imperfect knowledge of this great island. 



Mammalia. — The remains of Hippopotamus from the Post-tertiary 

 deposits of the island have been known since the time when 

 Murchison exhibited to the Geological Society in 1833 a tusk and 

 molar tooth from a conglomerate, some 30 miles from Antananarivo. 

 Further remains of what may be considered to be the same species were 

 described by Grandidier and Milne-Edwards in 1868 as H. lemerlei. 

 Portions of the skull of another individual of possibly the same 



iWe understand that a monograph on the genus Lemur, by Milne-Edwards 

 and Filhol may shortly be expected, accompanied by 60 anatomical plates, when 

 we hope the plates issued in 1890 will be properly described. 



