1 04 MAMMALS. 



Continental Africa.* So far fis regards the neighbouring Commoro Islands and Madagascar, it 

 does not appear that there is any such preponderance in favour of India. They seem to be 

 equally allied to India and Africa. A strong current certainly runs from India to the Commoro 

 Islands, and east coast of Africa, and, as might be expected, a number of Indian plants are 

 found there which are undoubtedly due to this source ; individual specimens of one sex only, and 

 growing solitary on the sea-shore, being sometimes the sole examples fouud.f The presence of such 

 fragments of the Indian flora can of course be only accounted for by colonization from India. But 

 so far as regards the Mammals, with one exception (the Indian and Australian Fox-bat, Pteropus 

 EnwARDSii), which is found in the Commoro Islands and Madagascar, and not on the Continent of 

 Africa, the affinities of all the types are as much African as Indian. 



The locality of the true Civet is the north of Africa, extending as far south and west as 

 Fernando Po. With the exception of it, all the true Civets inhabit India, China, and the Malayan 

 Archipelago. The other African Civets belong to the section called Genettes, and they are met 

 with from the Cape of Good Hope to Egypt, occurring in Abyssinia on the east and Gambia on 

 the west. Genettes are not found in Asia, and only one species, G. felina, occurs in Europe. 



The Cynogale is a web-footed, amphibious, otter-like Civet, found in Borneo. . An animal from 

 the Gabon, first doubtfully referred by M. Du Chaillu to this genus, proves to be a new Insectivore. 



Two genera, Galidictis and Galidia, which have been thought to belong to the Pole-cats, 

 but are now properly included by Dr. Gray in this family, are confined to Madagascar. Four species 

 of these are all that are yet known. 



The Paradoxuri are, with one exception from West Africa (P. binotatus), entirely Asiatic, and 

 limited to India, China, and the Malayan Peninsida and Archipelago ; some six are confined to 

 continent of India. 



The Herpestes, or Ichneumons, have the same distribution, as the Civets, upwards of forty 

 occur in Africa, and of these more than thirty are only recorded as having been met with in East and 

 South Africa and Madagascar. To the African portion of them no doubt belongs a small species, a 

 straggler into Andalusia (H. Widdrikgtonii). The remainder are distributed over the Indo-Malayan 

 region, with the exception of two which reach Persia and Cashmere. The well-known species (H. 

 Ichneumon), which destroys the eggs of the crocodile, is found in Egypt and the north of Africa. 

 The enemy of the Cobra (H. griseus) is found from Nepaul to the soutli of Ilindostan. 



* Peters, "Reise Nach. Mozamb. — Mammalia," 113. he said), all females, growing on the shore near the mouth 



t Dr. Kirk, for example, mentioned to me the in- of the Zambesi, and no males, 

 stance of four solitary trees of an Indian Cycas (I think 



