188 



GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. 



[PAET IV. 



Oriental regions ; but they only occur in the Ethiopian region in 

 South Africa and in the Deserts of the north, which more properly 

 belong to the Palsearctic region. They are absent from the 

 Malayan, and also from the Indo-Chinese sub-regions ; except 

 that they extend from the north of China to Amoy and Formosa, 

 and into the temperate highlands of the Western Himalayas. 

 The curious Gymnura (1 species) is found in Borneo, Sumatra, 

 and the Malay peninsula. 



Extinct Species. — The common hedgehog has been found fossil 

 in several Post-tertiary deposits, while extinct species occur in 

 the lower Miocene of Auvergne and in some other parts of 

 Europe. Many of these remains are classed in different genera 

 from the living species ; — {Amphechinus, Tetracus, Galerix.) 



Family 18.— CENTETID^. (6 Genera, 10 Species.) 



General Distribution. 



The Centetidse are small animals, many of them having a 

 spiny covering, whence the species of Centetes have been called 

 Madagascar hedgehogs. The genera Centetes (2 species), Hemi- 

 centetes (1 species), Ericulus (1 species), Echinops (3 species), and 

 the recently described Oryzorictes (1 species), are all exclusively 

 inhabitants of Madagascar, and are almost or quite tail-less. 

 The remaining genus, Solenodon, is a more slender and active 

 animal, with a long, rat-like tail, shrew-like head, and coarse fur ; 

 and the two known species are among the very few indigenous 

 mammals of the West Indian islands, one being found in Cuba 

 (Plate XVII., vol. ii., p. 67), the other in Hayti. Although 

 presenting many points of difference in detail, the essential 

 characters of this curious animal are, according to Professors 

 Peters and Mivart, identical with the rest of the Centetidse. 

 We have thus a most remarkable and well-established case of 

 discontinuous distribution, two portions of the same family 



