278 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi. 



Depanidida?. Euryceros is a complete puzzle, having been 

 placed with the hornbills, the starlings, or as a distinct family. 

 Falculia is an exceedingly aberrant form of starling, long thought 

 to be allied to Irrisor. Philepitta, forming a distinct family, 

 (Paictidse), is most remarkable and isolated, perhaps with remote 

 South American affinities. Leptosoma is another extraordinary 

 form, connecting the cuckoos with the rollers. Atelornis, 

 Brachypteracias, and Geobiastes, are terrestrial rollers, with the 

 form and colouring of Pitta. So many perfectly isolated and 

 remarkable groups are certainly nowhere else to be found ; and 

 they fitly associate with the wonderful aye -aye (Chiromys), 

 the insectivorous Centetidee, and carnivorous Cryptoprocta 

 among the Mammalia. They speak to us plainly of enormous 

 antiquity, of long-continued isolation ; and not less plainly of 

 a lost continent or continental island, in which so many, and 

 various, and peculiarly organized creatures, could have been 

 gradually developed in a connected fauna, of which we have 

 here but the fragmentary remains. 



Plate VI — Illustrating the characteristic features of the 

 Zoology of Madagascar. — The lemurs, which form the most 

 prominent feature in the zoology of Madagascar, being com- 

 paratively well-known from the numerous specimens in our 

 zoological gardens ; and good figures of the Insectivorous genera 

 not being available, we have represented the nocturnal and 

 extraordinary aye-aye (Chiromys madagascariensis) to illustrate 

 its peculiar and probably very ancient mammalian fauna ; while 

 the river-hogs in the distance (Potamochcerus edwardsii) allied to 

 African species, indicate a later immigration from the main- 

 land than in the case of most of the other Mammalia. The 

 peculiar birds being far less generally known, we have figured 

 three of them. The largest is the Euryceros prevosti, here classed 

 with the starlings, although its remarkable bill and other pecu- 

 liarities render it probable that it should form a distinct family. 

 Its colours are velvety black and rich brown with the bill of a 

 pearly grey. The bird beneath ( Vanga curvirostris) is one of the 

 peculiar Madagascar shrikes whose plumage, variegated with 

 green-black and pure white is very conspicuous ; while that in 



