VII.] UNGULATES. 249 



known as to the past history of the group 1 ; but it has been 

 suggested (p. 85) that they may be allied to certain extinct South 

 American ungulates. 



The list of peculiar Ethiopian mammals is brought to a close 

 by the aard-varks (Orycteropodida), which although generally in- 

 cluded in the Edentata have nothing to do with the typical South 

 American representatives of that order, and are here, together with 

 the pangolins, regarded as forming an ordinal group Effodientia 

 by themselves. Only a single genus (Orycteropus] now exists, of 

 which there are two living Ethiopian species, and there are 

 extinct species in the Pliocene of Persia and Samos. A skull 

 from the Plistocene of Madagascar has been described as Plesi- 

 orycteropus, and another genus occurs in the French Oligocene. 

 Not improbably some members of the family entered Africa and 

 Madagascar with the ancestral lemuroids and civets, but the dis- 

 covery of the Pliocene forms renders it probable that the existing 

 genus is a later immigrant. 



Finally, it may be mentioned that among the more widely- 

 spread genera a few species of mammals are either now common 

 to the Ethiopian region and India, or were so during the Plistocene 

 age. In the Felida the lion (Felts leo), leopard (F. pardus), jungle- 

 cat (F. chaus], caracal (F. caracal), and hunting-leopard (Cynce- 

 lurus jubatus] still range over the two areas ; fossilised remains of 

 the first three of these also occurring in the European Plistocene 

 deposits. On the other hand, the spotted hyaena (Hycena crocutd), 

 which lived in Southern India (as well as in Europe) during the 

 Plistocene era, is now restricted to Ethiopian Africa; and the 

 same is the case with the giant pangolin (Mains gigantea) of West 

 Africa, fossilised remains of which have been discovered, in 

 company with those of the spotted hyaena, in a cavern in 

 Madras. 



The following table shows the genera and family of mammals 

 now more or less exclusively restricted to the Ethiopian region ; 

 the names of such as are practically peculiar to this area being 

 printed in italic type. 



1 I am informed that a skull belonging to an extinct member of this group 

 has been discovered in the Pliocene of Samos, but no description has been 

 published. 



