308 MAMMALS. 



II. The Afiucano-Indiax RiicaoN. This includes Mrica, soutli of the Saharan desert, the 

 South of Arabia, and the Indo-Mahxyan and Indo-Chinese regions. 



I hare alreadj- explained the geological grounds on which I consider India to have been united to 

 Africa during the miocene epoch. These are supported by the affinities of the two faunas. 



If we put aside a few instances where species have wandered a little beyond their natural 

 bounds, Africa and India have a large number of points in common, and that not only in what 

 they possess but also in what the}' do not. Among many others they possess the following mamma- 

 lian forms in common, and alone possess thom. To them are confined the whole tribe of Old-world 

 Monkeys (Cataukhini). In them are found sf)ecies of Anthropoid Apes, and this remarkable 

 type occurs nowhere else. Each of them has Baboons, no other region has. The Lemurs are found 

 in both, and nowhere else. Both are the countries of the Jackals. The Buffiiloes are denizens of 

 both. Africa is the great centre of the AntelojDes, but a few are also found in tlie Indian region, and 

 they are almost absent from every other. Cameloijards, although now confined to Africa, in former 

 times also lived in India. The true Shrews are found in neither country, although plentifuUj' in 

 Europe and Northern Asia ; but the tropical Shrews (Crociduba) occur in both, and nowhere else. 

 More instances might be cited, but enough has been done for my purpose. In like manner, the 

 most of the species foimd in Europe and North Asia are absent from India and Africa. The 

 Elephant and Rhinoceros are usually cited as indications of the former union of Africa and India. 

 They undoubtedly are so, but their presence solely in these two countries now cannot be cited as 

 instances of a special fauna inhabiting both. Their occurrence in Europe, Asia, and America, 

 during the miocene period, shows that they were not peculiar to the Africano- Indian region. 

 So the Hippopotamus was formerly European. If Africa is, |j«r cxcdlence, the land of the heavy 

 Pachyderms now, it was not so always. The specialty of these faunas rests on other grounds. 

 In the Appendix will be found a list of the genera present in, and absent from, both of these 

 lands. 



If, in defiance of these concurrences, we separate India from Africa, we must alter the 

 standard of our regions ; we must sejjarate North America from South America, New Guinea from 

 New Holland, and Polynesia from both, and pei'haps establish other provinces, such as the 

 Mediterranean, the Scandinavian, and the Mongolian. 



But although India and Africa form one great region, equivalent in size and homogeneous- 

 ness to the Europsco-Asiatic, their subdivision into two very important and well-marked regions 

 is equally clear — the African and the Indo-Malayan. The Indian portion of this region consists 

 of India south of the southern ridge of the Himmalayah, Ceylon, the Indo-Chinese region, viz. 

 Burmah, Cochin China, Siam, part of China, the Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and 

 the neighbouring islands west of the Straits of Macassar. 



The Philijjpiue Islands also belong to this district and Formosa, and the other islands adjoining 

 the coast of Southern China. Formosa, in addition to the Chinese tj-pes of Mammals, possesses 

 also a trace of the Himmalayan element. It is, in fact, the termination of that range. These 

 mountains after crossing China here sink into the sea. Mr. Swinhoe mentions that the species which 

 are identical with those of China are darker and of more lively tints, and those that tUffer more nearly 

 resemble Hinmialayan forms than those of the plains of China. Dr. Sclater reckons Mauritius as an 

 appurtenance of Africa, which its proximity would seem to confirm, but its Coleoptera are certainly 

 Indian (Prot.etia maculata would condemn it for Indian in any court in Em-ope). The only 

 mammals that I can find recorded as inhabiting Maiu-itius, besides the domestic animals (including 



