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CHAPTER III. 



THE ANDIAL LIFE OF MADAGASCAE. 



PECULIAR AND SPECIALISED CHARACTER OF THE FAUNA — ONE OF THE MOST 

 REMARKABLE GEOLOGICAL REGIONS — LEMURS — AYE-AYE — INSECTIVORA — 

 CARNIVORA— UNGULATA — FOSSIL HIPPOPOTAMUS — RODENTIA — REMOTE 

 AFFINITIES OF THE AVI-FAUNA — RAPTO RES — "WATER-BIRDS — PERCHING 



BIRDS — CARDINAL-BIRD— SUN-BIRDS — iEPYORNIS AND ITS ENORMOUS EGG 



REPTILES — SCARCITY OF VENOMOUS SERPENTS — LIZARDS — GIGANTIC TOR- 

 TOISES — CROCODILES — FISHES — INSECTS — BUTTERFLIES — BEETLES — WASPS 

 — FIREFLIES — MANTIS — ANTS — LOCUSTS — MOSQUITOES — SPIDERS — SCOR- 

 PIONS AND CENTIPEDES — AN ARMOUR-PLATED CREATURE — MINUTE AND 

 AQUATIC FAUNA — ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE SPECIALISED FAUNA OF 

 MADAGASCAR — OPINIONS OF EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



As already pointed out in the preceding chapter, a large 

 extent of country in Madagascar is covered with forest, a 

 broad belt of which surrounds the island in an almost un- 

 broken line ; while there is in addition to this a considerable 

 tract of country, less densely wooded, occupying much of the 

 western and southern plains. Here, then, there appears to 

 be a congenial habitat for a vast number of living creatures 

 — birds, reptiles, and arboreal mammals — in the thousands 

 of square miles of woods, which cover not only a great 

 portion of the warmer coast region, but also the sloj)es of the 

 elevated interior plateaux. 



From these physical conditions of the country, it might 

 therefore be supposed that Madagascar, situated as it is almost 

 entirely witliiu the tropics, would be profusely filled with 

 animal life. But it is not so, at least not nearly to such an 

 extent as one would expect ; and a stranger crossing the 

 forest for the first time is always struck with the general 

 stillness of the woods and the apparent scarcity of birds 

 seen on the route. The fauna of the country does, it is true, 

 contain some most interesting and exceptional forms of life, 



