Dr. G. Hartlaub on the Ornithology of Madagascar. 383 



atrovirens, Chcvallier, is another species of the same genus, and 

 I have either that or a third from South Carolina. All the three, 

 it should be observed, have a more closely tufted habit than the 

 fossil species. Dr. Thomas's plant is possibly figured by Berendt, 

 tab. 6. fig. 73. 



Platk XII. Streptothrix spiralis, n. s., magnified 600 diameters: fig. 1. 

 barren ; fig. 2. fertile. 



XL. — On the present state of our knowledge of the Ornithology 

 of Madagascar. By Dr. G. Hartlaub of Bremen*. 



It has long been known to zoologists that the island of Mada- 

 gascar is the site and centre of a very peculiar animal popula- 

 tion. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire was inclined to regard it, 

 in respect of its fauna, as a " fourth continent " ; and Hom- 

 bron, in the first volume of the zoological portion of Dumont 

 d'Urville's Expedition to the South Pole, indicates it as one of 

 the creational centres of the African plateau. The distinctness 

 of the Madagascar fauna from that of the African continent is 

 so remarkably great, that of the forty-seven or forty-eight 

 mammalian species which are known to live in a wild state in 

 Madagascar, only one or perhaps two (Sus larvatus and Pteropus 

 rubricoUis ?) occur also in Africa. Indeed by far the greater num- 

 ber of them belong to genera which are met with in no other 

 region of the earth's surface. According to SchlegePs researches, 

 the Ophidians of this great island appear to be equally peculiar, 

 inasmuch as it is only the forms of the west coast which exhibit 

 some affinity to those of the opposite shores of Africa. Lastly, 

 the insect-fauna of Madagascar seems, according to Klug and 

 Boisduval, to be rich in original and remarkable forms, although 

 in this department the cases of identity with African species are 

 more frequent, as appears, for instance, from the list of insects 

 of the neighbourhood of Port Natal, &c, appended to Dele- 

 gorgue's i Voyage dans PAfrique Australe/ It is indeed not im- 

 probable that a more complete knowledge of the zoology of the 

 East-African regions of Mozambique and Sofala will establish 

 still further relations of affinity between the continental fauna 

 of Africa and the insular one of Madagascar ; especially if ever 

 the west coast of this island (which is 350 miles long and is 

 still in great measure a terra incognita) shall become more ac- 

 cessible. Our knowledge of the Madagascar fauna, slight and 

 fragmentary as it is, is almost exclusively due to the undaunted 

 and unwearied zeal of the French naturalists, whose field of 



* Translated by H. E. Strickland from D' Alton and Burmeister's 'Zeitung 

 fur Zoologie, Zootomie und Palaeozoologie,' No. 19, May 6, 1848. 



