186 



GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. 



[PART iv. 



the limitation of types, and the peculiarities of distribution we 

 now find to exist. 



Order 1IL INSECTIVORA. 



FAMILY 14. GALEOPITHECID^E. (1 Genus, 2 Species.) 

 GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The singular and isolated genus Galeopithecus, or flying lemur, 

 has been usually placed among the Lemuroidea, but it is now 

 considered to come best at the head of the Insectivora. Its food 

 however, seems to be purely vegetable, and the very small, blind, 

 and naked young, closely attached to the wrinkled skin of the 

 mother's breast, perhaps indicates some affinity with the Marsu- 

 pials. This animal seems, in fact, to be a lateral offshoot of 

 some low form, which has survived during the process of develop- 

 ment of the Insectivora, the Lemuroidea, and the Marsupials, 

 from an ancestral type. Only two species are known, one 

 found in Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo, but not in Java ; the 

 other in the Philippine islands (Plate VIII. vol. i. p. 337). 



FAMILY 15. MACKOSCELIDID^E. (3 Genera, 10 Species.) 

 GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The Macroscelides, or elephant shrews, are extraordinary little 

 animals, with trunk-like snout and kangaroo-like hind-legs. 

 They are almost confined to South Africa, whence they extend 

 up the east coast as far as the Zambezi and Mozambique. A 



