THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 

 No. 81. SEPTEMBER 1884. 



XX. — On some Peculiarities in the Geographical Distribution 

 and in the Hahits of certain Mammals inhabiting Continental 

 and Oceanic Islands*. By G. E. DOBSON, M.A., F.R.S. 



The geographical distribution of Mammals inhabiting con- 

 tinental and oceanic islands has been lately so ably treated 

 of by Mr. Wallace, in his work ' Island Life/ that I do 

 not purpose entering upon the subject from a general point 

 of view, but will limit my remarks to some peculiarities 

 of distribution which have attracted my attention while 

 engaged in the special study of certain Mammalian orders : I 

 refer particularly to the Chiroptera and Insectivora. 



It is an interesting fact, not hitherto noticed, that many of 

 the most characteristic species of the Chiropterous fauna of 

 Australia have their nearest allies, not in the Oriental, but in 

 the Ethiopian Region, thus contrasting remarkably with the 

 avifauna. The peculiar genus Chalinolobus is represented 

 only in Africa south of the equator and in Australia, a single 

 species extending into New Zealand. Again, the species of 

 the subgenus Mormopferus, which belongs to a genus [Ni/cti- 

 nomus) of world-wide distribution, are limited to the same 



* Read before the Biological Section of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science at the Montreal Meeting, August 29, 1884. 



Ann. ds Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xiv. 13 



