214 Original Articles. | April, 
in geographical distribution—namely, that presented to us by the 
Fauna of the Island of Madagascar. Madagascar being immediately 
‘contiguous to the eastern coast of Africa, and separated from it by a 
channel in one place only some 200 miles across, in which, moreover, 
there are several intermediate islands, while it is very far removed 
from India and America, ought, according to generally-received rules, 
to exhibit a Fauna of a purely African type. But this, as is well 
known to naturalists, is not the case. The numerous Mammals of the 
orders Ruminantia, Pachydermata, and Proboscidea, so characteristic 
of the Aithiopian Fauna, are entirely absent from Madagascar. The 
same is the case with the larger species of Carnivora, which are found 
throughout the African continent, but do not extend into Madagascar. 
Again, the highly-organized types of Quadrumana, which prevail in 
the forests of the mainland, are utterly wanting in the neighbouring 
island, their place being there occupied by several genera of the inferior 
family of Lemurs. In the like manner, I shall be able to show that 
similar irregularities prevail to a greater or lesser extent in every other 
part of the series of Mammals, and that, in short, the anomalies pre- 
sented to us by the forms of life prevalent in this island are so striking, 
that claims have been put forward in its favour to be considered as a 
distinct primary geographical region of the earth.* 
But let us take the Orders pf Mammalia as they are generally 
recognized, one by one, in order that we may examine more carefully 
the affinities of each genus of them included in the list of Madagascarian 
Mammals. To do this, it will be most convenient to refer to the cata- 
logue of the Vertebrates of Madagascar lately published by M. Frangois 
Pollen, in the ‘ Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor de Dierkunde;’f this 
being the only general article bearing upon the subject that has yet 
appeared. M. Pollen’s list is a compilation for his own use, as 
being about to visit Madagascar, of what has been recorded by previous 
authorities on the subject. Amongst such authorities, the most im- 
portant, as regards Mammals, is certainly an article by M. Victor 
Seganzin, in the third volume of the ‘Memoirs of the Society of the 
Museum of Natural History of Strasburg.’ M. Sganzin was the com- 
mandant of the French settlement of Sainte-Marie, on the north-east 
coast of Madagascar, in 1831 and 1832, and obtained on that island 
and on the adjoining coast of Madagascar proofs of the existence of 
about a hundred Vertebrate animals, concerning which he gives us 
notes, without, however, in many cases, any precise determination of the 
species. Long before his time, it is true, De Flacourt and Sonnerat 
* The most natural primary divisions of the earth as regards Zoology are, as 
has been shown in the ‘ Journal of Proceedings of the Linnean Society’ (Zoology), 
ii. p. 130, and elsewhere, (1) The Neotropical region, comprising South America, 
Mexico, and the West Indies; (2) The Nearctic, including the rest ef America ; 
(3) The Palwarctic, composed of Europe, Africa north of the Sahara, and 
Northern Asia; (4) The A?thiopian, which contains the rest of Africa, Arabia, 
and Madagascar; (5) The Indian, consisting of Southern Asia and the western 
half of the Malay Archipelago; and (6) The Australian, which comprises the 
eastern portion of the Malay Archipelago, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. 
t+ ‘Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor de Dierkunde,’ Amsterdam, 1863, vol. i. 
p. 277. 
