114 



poraneous with the now vanished Dodo and the large flightless 

 Rail {Aphanapteryx)^ both of which were seen alive by Euro- 

 peans little more than two centuries ago, and it is not improb- 

 able that Megaladapis may have been living in the Madagascar 

 forests at the same period. 



FAMILY LEMURID/E {antea, p. 22). 



In this family, and in its sub-family Lemur'uicc (because of 

 its affinities with Hapaleuiuj-)^ has to be included a large extinct 

 species from Nossi Vey, in North-west Madagascar. Its fossil 

 remains were recently described (P. Z. S., 1893, p. 532), but 

 not named by Dr. Forsyth Major. They will prove, he believes, 

 when more fully known, to be the type of a new genus. At 

 present, however, owing to their incomplete state, it is not 

 possible to describe the species fully. " The Lemuroid nature 

 of the specimen is at once demonstrated by the great elevation 

 and downward bending of the post-orbital processes . . . 

 shov.'ing that the osseous ring of the orbit was complete. Un- 

 usual for a Lemuroid is the very strong post-orbital constriction 

 of the frontals, a character, however, seen in Adapts^ an Eocene 

 European form, and in Hapalenmr. With the latter it agrees 

 in the voluminous cranial and very short facial portion, and the 

 " cuttingly sharp " inferior margin of its post-orbital process. 

 Seen from the side, this fossil cranium is almost vertically 

 truncated behind, as in the skull of Alouatta. The region 

 between the eyes is vaulted by underlying air-chambers. 



FAMILY ANAPTOMORPHIDiE. 



This family includes certain fossil forms of Lower Eocene 

 age from the phosphatic deposits of Quercy in France, the 



