J 



66 ABSENCE OF LARGE ANIMALS 



broad at one point, we should have supposed that Madagascar 

 would partake to a great extent of the same characteristics, as 

 regards animal life, as the neighbouring continent. But it is 

 really remarkably different. ThereJ^ a strange aJ^sgnc_QL^ie 

 ies of mammalia, and this statement applies not only 

 to the forests but to all parts of the island, the bare highlands 

 of the interior and the extensive lower plains of the west and the 

 south. 



First of all, the large carnivora are all wanting ; there are 

 no lions, leopards, tigers, panthers, or hyenas. The large 

 thick-skinned animals, so plentiful in the rivers and forests of 

 Africa, have no representatives in Madagascar ; no elephant 

 browses in the woods, no rhinoceros or hippopotamus lazily 

 gambols in the streams, although there was a small species of 

 the last-named pachyderm which was living during the latest 

 quaternary epoch. The numerous species of fleet-footed 

 animals antelope, gazelle, deer, and giraffe, zebra and quagga 

 which scour the African plains are entirely absent ; and the 

 ox, the sheep, the goat, the horse and the ass have all been 

 introduced, the three former from Africa and the others from 

 Europe. The order of mammalia most developed here is the 

 qiiartmmana, but this, again, is represented by but a single 

 division, the lemurs and their. allies, which are the most char- 

 acteristic animals of the island. There are no true monkeys, 

 baboons, or apes, nor do the gorilla or chimpanzee put in an 

 appearance. The lemurs are very distinct from all these and 

 are pretty creatures, bearing little resemblance to the half- 

 human, grotesque appearance of many of the quadrumanous 

 animals, or to the savage character of the larger apes and 

 baboons. They vary in size from that of a large monkey to 

 species not larger than a rat. They are mostly gentle in 

 disposition, and some kinds are tame enough to be kept about 

 the house as pets. 



It is probable that the mammalia of Madagascar are now 

 fairly well known, although a few of the smallest species may 

 still await discovery ; and the following summary may be here 

 given of their divisions and numbers excluding the bats, of 

 which there are seventeen species, ninety species of terrestrial 

 mammals have been classified and described, and of the follow- 

 ing orders : Lemuroida, thirty-nine species ; Carnivora, 



