,310 MAMMALS. 



entirely from the mammals, but from a general view of aU. the classes of its inhabitants with 

 ■which I am. acquainted. 



Madagascar, with an African type, is thorouglily peculiar, and there is reason to expect that 

 its complete examiaation will present some very interesting results. This we know already, 

 that while some parts of it teem with the most extraordinary and beautiful creations, others are 

 in no respects particularly remarkable, and contain many of the species already loiown from the 

 opposite coast of Africa. I have already noticed the chief points in the geographical distri- 

 bution of its Mammals in spcaldng of the Lemurs, which are its most remarkable mammalian 

 inhabitants. 



The Indian region has not the same marked provinces which exist in West Africa. It is in 

 this respect, like the east of Africa, pretty homogeneous throughout. The continent of India might 

 be divided into the Himmalayan or momitain district, and the plain. Ceylon may form another 

 district, and the Indian .ili-chipelago another. Perhaps the most noteworthy points are those which 

 I have already discussed regarding the mammalian fauna of Borneo, and the cause of its peculiar 

 constitution. I have already said that I do not believe that the concurrent presence of species 

 in Sumatra and Ceylon, rested on by Sir Emerson Tennent as proof of the former continuity of 

 the latter vrith the former, iftstead of with India, is anything more than a proof of the common 

 origin of the Malayan and Indian faunas. 



The characters of the Mammalian fauna of Africa have given rise to a class of sjieculation 

 which I notice only to avoid the appearance of having neglected or ignored it ; for I do not think 

 that they have much useful bearing upon, or relation to, geographical distribution. M. Pucheran, 

 for example, draws attention to the follovidng particulars as characteristic of the mammals of 

 Africa, viz., the predominance of terrestrial over aquatic species ; the prevalence of fawn-coloured 

 fur ; a tendency to modification in the proj)ortion of the limbs of the animals (of which the 

 Hyaena, the Girafie and the Buffalo are examples), by which the anterior Hmbs are increased in 

 size apparently at the expense of the posterior ; and the Macroscelides, Helomys, and Dendromys, 

 of the reverse ; a tendency to unusual development of the ears (a character already noticed by 

 Geoffrey St. Hilaire as common in desert animals, and by De BlainviUe in southern animals) ; and 

 the existence of a genus of rodents peculiar to itself in each of four zones into which he divides 

 the continent. 



I do not say that each of these peculiarities may not furnish interesting subjects of inquiry, 

 but as they are the result of affinity, and the conditions of the country, they have only a secondary 

 and reflected relation to geographical distribution. 



III. The Austr.\li.\n Eegion contains Australia, Van Dieman's Land, Papua and adjacent 

 islands east of the Straits of Macassar and Lombok, Polynesia, and New Zealand. 



Similar reasons to those which induce me to unite Africa to India on the great scale, justify 

 the imion of New Guinea with Australia. Like them, their past geological history indicates that 

 the straits and seas which now sejiarate them did not always exist. Like them, too, their faunas 

 have a certain affinity together, and also many joint points of dissimilarity from others. Dr. Sclater 

 says of them, "New Guinea is in some respects so pecidiar in its ornithology, as far as we 

 are acquainted with it, that it would at first sight appear as if it ought to fonn a zoological region of 

 itself; but there are certainly many genera common to it and Australia, and for the present I am 

 inclined to retain it as part of the Australian region. Both New Zealand and the Pacific Islands 



