1864. |} Sonarmr on the Mammals of Madagascar. 215 
had published narratives of their voyages to Madagascar, and the 
latter had made known to science several of the most remarkable types 
of the island ;* but neither of these explorers has furnished any general 
indications as to the character of its Mammalian Fauna. In 1833, 
three French naturalists — Bernier, Goudot, and Rousseau — visited 
Madagascar, and it is to the labours of these energetic collectors on the 
eastern coast, and to those of Dr. W. Peters, of Berlin, on the western 
coast, that science is chiefly indebted for the progress that has lately 
been made towards the compilation of a list of the Mammals of this 
island, which, however, as far as our present knowledge extends, only 
embraces some 49 species—namely, Quadrumana 28, Carnivora 5, 
Chiroptera 5, Rodentia 1, Insectivora 9, Pachydermata 1. 
To begin then with the order Quadrumana, the most remarkable and 
most characteristic type of Madagascarian Mammals here presents itself 
at once at the head of the list. The Lemurs are universally recog- 
nized among naturalists as forming a separate and distinct group of 
Quadrumanous Mammals. And of the Lemurs nearly thirty different 
species, embracing eight generic forms, are found in Madagascar, 
whilst all Africa only contains some eleven or twelve species of these 
animals, and the Indian region not more than three. This will be 
better seen by the subjoined table, in which the distribution of the 
genera of the family of Lemurs and the approximate number of the 
known species of each genus are given— 
Table of the Distribution of the Lemuride. 
aoe ena: AFRICA. MADAGASCAR, ASIA, 
1. Indris (2) + 
Tndrisinze 2, Propithecus (1) 
3. Avahis (1) 
4. Lemur (16) 
5. Hapalemur (2) 
6. Lepilemur (1) 
Lemurine 7. Chirogaleus (2) 
8. Perodicticus (2) 
9. Nycticebus (2) 
10. Loris (1) 
11. Microcebus (2 
Galaginz { 12. Galago (9) - 
Tarsiinee | 13. Tarsius (1) 
Moreover, as the whole number of Mammals at present known to 
exist in Madagascar does not amount to fifty, we have this very remark- 
* De Flacourt’s ‘Histoire de la Grande Ile de Madagascar,’ and Sonnerat’s 
‘ Voyage aux Indes Orientales.’ 
+ N.B.—The numbers in figures placed after the generic names in the table 
give the (in some cases approximate) number of species of the genus. Until very 
recently but one species of Indris was known to science ; but M. Vinson has lately 
discovered, and described in the ‘Annales des Sciences Naturelles’ (Zool. xix. 
p. 253), a second from the forest of Alanamazoatrao—which he has proposed to 
eall Indris albus. 
Q 2 
