R. B. Newton—Post-Tertiary Vertebrates from Madagascar. 197 
Posr-TERTIARY VERTEBRATES FROM MADAGASCAR. 
The British Museum has just acquired an interesting series of 
vertebrate remains from a Post-Tertiary deposit in Madagascar. 
They were obtained by the Rev. James Wills, another member 
of the London Missionary Society, at Sirabé, in the Province of 
Betsileo, which is marked on Dr. Mullen’s! Map at 1950’ 8S. and 
47-10’ E. This locality lies in a region of extinct volcanic craters, 
and according to the maps has an elevation at this point of 4930 feet . 
above sea-level. Thermal springs are also common in the neigh- 
bourhood; one at Betafo registering 130° Fahr. 
The bones are of a dark brown colour and were found in a 
swampy deposit of a more or less peaty nature, probably forming the 
floor of the same dried-up ancient lake—mentioned by the Rev. 
R. Baron® as existing at this spot, and in which some years ago 
the late Dr. Hildebrandt*® discovered the skull and skeleton of a 
Hippopotamus. These remains have been identified as follows :— 
Crocodilus robustus, Grandidier and Vaillant.* 
Aipyornis maximus, Geoffroy St. Hilaire.° 
Hippopotamus Lemerlei, Grandidier and Milne Edwards.° 
The same species of Crocodile’ still abounds in the rivers of the 
country; but the Aupyornis and Hippopotamus are thought to be 
extinct, a view which may subsequently be disproved when more 
is ascertained concerning the unexplored parts of the island. The 
Hippopotamus bones indicate an animal of rather small dimensions, 
representing an intermediate form between the ordinary H. amphibius 
and H. Liberiensis, a pygmy species indigenous to the rivers of 
Western Africa. 
It may be of interest to mention that sixty years ago Sir Roderick 
Murchison ® announced to the Geological Society the discovery of 
a Hippopotamus tusk and molar tooth in a recent conglomerate rock 
from Madagascar. 
No egg-shells were found associated with the Aipyornis bones, 
though their occurrence in the alluvial soil of the southern portions 
of the coast-line has long been recognized, some of them attaining 
to an enormous size. One example in the British Museum has a 
1 On the Central Provinces of Madagascar, Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1875, 
vol. xlv. p. 139, map. 
= Notes on the Geology of Madagascar, Q.J.G.S., 1889, vol. xlv. p. 308. 
3 Skizze zu einem Hilde central-Madagassischen Natur-lebens im Fruhling. 
Zeitsch. Ges. Erdk. Berlin, 1881, vol. xvi. p. 194. 
4 Sur le crocodile fossile d’ Amboulinsatre (Madagascar), Comptes Rendus, 1872, 
vol. Ixxy. p. 150. 
5 Notice sur des ossements et des coufs trouvés 4 Madagascar dans des alluvions 
modernes et provenant d’un oiseau gigantesque, Ann. Sci. Nat. (Paris), 1850, ser. 3, 
vol. xiv. p. 206. 
6 Sur les découvertes zoologiques faites récemment 2 Madagascar par M. Alfred 
Grandidier, Comptes Rendus, 1868, vol. Ixvii. p. 1166. 
7G. A. Boulenger, Cat. Chelonians and Crocodiles in the British Museum, 
1889, p. 286. 
8 Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 1833, vol. i. No. 31, p. 479. The specimen here re- 
ferred to is in the Museum of the Geological Society, and is localised as 30 miles 
from Antananarivo (see MS. label). 
