THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 106. OCTOBER 1876. 



XXIV. — The African Element in the Fauna of India: a Cri- 

 ticism of Mr, Wallace^ s views as expressed in the^Oeogra- 

 jpihical Distribution of Animals!' By W. T. Blanfoed. 

 F.R.S. &c. 



Some years since I read a short paper before the British 

 Association *, in which I pointed out that the fauna of a large 

 portion of the Indian peninsula had stronger African than 

 Malayan affinities. With the exception of a note on the dis- 

 tribution of Indian reptiles which I published in 1870 1, and 

 in which I briefly indicated the different zoological provinces 

 and subprovinces existing in India, I have not returned to the 

 subject ; and as I have never published the details upon which 

 my views were founded, I am not surprised to find that my 

 opinion has had but little weight with any who had not a per- 

 sonal knowledge of the country. My principal reason for 

 waiting until I had more leisure was a hope that I might be 

 able to examine into the authenticity of many admitted genera, 

 since I have long been convinced that many of the usual 

 generic groups are artificial ; and some are even founded upon 

 geographical distribution — forms which inhabit Africa being 

 placed in a different genus from those which inhabit India on 

 account of a difference in the locality, and not of a difference 

 in structure. I was especially desirous also of working out 

 the very difficult question of terrestrial Mollusca, the distri- 

 bution of which, as Mr. Wallace has just pointed out in his 



* Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1869, p. 107. 

 t J. A. S. B. xxxix. pt. ii. p. 335. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xviii. 19 



