TllANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 97 



1. Madagascah. 



To our knowledge of the extraordinary fauna of " Lemuria," as I have elsewhere 

 proposed to call Madagascar and its islands * , great additions have been recently 

 made ; hut it is manifest that ^ladagascar is by no means 3et worked outf. Dr. 

 Ilartlaub's ' Ornithologischer Beitrag zur Fauna Madagascar's ' (38) was the first 

 attempt at a resume of tlie remarkable Avifauna of this part of the world. Since its 

 issue two Dutch naturalists, Pollen and Van Dam, have visited Madagascar, and 

 forwarded rich collections to the Leyden Museum. Of these the Mammals and 

 Birds have been worked out by I'rofessor Schlegel and Mr. Pollen, and the results 

 published in a well-illustrated volume entitled ' Recherches sur la Faune de Mada- 

 gascar.' This has been since followed by an accompanying account of the Fishes, 

 and treatise on the Fisheries, hy Messrs. Bleeker and Pollen (39). Following upon 

 the footsteps of these naturalists, a French explorer, Alfred Grandidier, has since 

 visited the interior of Madagascar, and in his turn has reaped a gTand harvest, of 

 which some of the results have already been given to the public (40). But we are 

 promised to have these set before us in a much more extended and complete form, 

 in a work now in progress, in which M. Grandidier has obtained the efficient assist- 

 ance of M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards. There still remain to be spoken of the dis- 

 coveries recently made by an English collector in Madagascar, Mr. A. Crossley. 

 Mr. Crossley's birds have been worked out by Mr. Sharpe in several papers pub- 

 lished from time to time hy the Zoological Society (41) ; while Dr. Gunther has 

 described several new and remarkable Mammals from the same source (42). 



2. The 3Iascabejie Islands. 



The Fauna of Bourhon, Mauritius, and Rodriguez forms an appendage to that 

 of Madagascar, and merits careful study. Our knowledge of these islands, since 

 the recent investigation of Rodriguez by the naturalists of the Transit-of- Venus 

 Expedition, is tolerably complete, hut requires to he put together, as it consists 

 of fragments dispersed over various journals and periodicals. I trust that Mr. 

 Edward Newton, who has had so many opportunities of acquiring information on 

 this subject during his Colonial Secretaryship at Mauritius, and has so well used 

 these opportunities, may shortly have leisiire to devote to this task. His labours 

 to recover the skeleton of Pezopkaps, in which, I am pleased to think, he was aided 

 by a grant from this Association, are well known, as is likewise the excellent me- 

 moir, by himself and Prof. Newton (43), in which the result of his labom*s was 

 "•iven to the world. Nor must I omit to mention Prof. Owen's dissertations on 

 the fellow extinct bird of Mauritius, recently published by the Zoological Society 

 (44, 45). 



As regards the Recent Ornithology of these islands, we have nothing later to refer 

 to than Hartlaub's little work on Madagascar, noticed above (38), which includes 

 what was then known of the Avifauna of the Mascarenes. 



The neighbouring group of the Seychelles was visited by Mr. Edward Newton in 

 1867, and several new and most interesting species of hirds ohtained there. A com- 



!lete account of the ornitJiology of these islands was given by Mr. Newton in ' The 

 bis ' for 1867 (46). Since that period Dr. E. P. Wright, formerly an active member 

 of this Association, has made a scientific excursion to the Seychelles, with the view, 

 as was generally understood, of j)reparing a complete monograph of the fauna and 

 flora of these interesting islands. It is much to be regi'etted that this very 

 desirable purpose has not yet been accomplished. 



m. THE INDIAN REGION. 



Of the extensive and varied Indian Region I will now proceed to say some- 

 thing, under the suhjoined heads : — 



* Quart. Journ. of Science, 1864, p. 213. 



t Witness the Mammal-forms TirachyUirsomys and Mixocchus, lately described by Dr. 

 Gunther and Dr. Peters, and the new genus of Birds, Neodrepanis, recently characterized 

 by Mr. Sharpe. 



