158 Scientifie Intelligence. 
America, the genus being quite unrepresented in the intermediate 
countries. In the Cuculine genus Neomorphus, the Central 
American form (V. Salvini) was —- in very nearly similar to the 
Brazilian (WV. Geoffroyi), whereas in the Tar countries 
three other quite distinct ceitthion: were known to occur. 
(3.) Pitta Angolensis.—Not less than from thirty to forty spe- 
cies of the brilliantly colored birds of the genus Pitta were 
known to science, distributed from India, on the north, through 
the great Asiatic islands into Northern Australia, But one single 
Pitta, in every way typical in structure, and closel _— to an 
Indian s species, occurred in a limited district of rn Africa, 
the genus being quite sir eabadines in intermediate soeaticat This 
was a clear instance of a on generic area. 
4.) The So — of the Antill —The insectivorous mam- 
mals, according to the best spetrporec ay meray ea ten different 
families, which were mp restricted t e Palearctic, Indian 
and Ethiopian regions, and were ontiredy resebieneiteae in Aus- 
tralia and South America. Two families only extended into the 
northern portion of the New World, the ate ( Zalpide) and the 
shrews (Sorecide). But there was one very exceptional -_ 
The genus Solenodon, two species of which were known from two 
islands in the West Indies, belonged not to the shrews or aed 
but to the family Centetide, otherwise entirely confined to Mada- 
gascar. If, therefore, the descent of Solenodon and Centetes from 
& common ancestor nb assumed, the following assumptions must 
also be made. First, that the West India Islands had been united 
by land to Africa; and secondly, that the Centetide had formerly 
extended all through Africa, where there were now no traces of 
5.) The Distribution of Lemurs.—Recalling Senne to our 
minds, we might well have expected that the Lemurs, one of the 
The giant land tortoises, 
which had ieeeky ‘cred the mallet of the elaborate 8 tudies of 
Dr. Ginther, presented a till instance of anom- 
alous distribution: These nimals. now only existed in the Gala- 
agos Islands and on the deal face of Aldabra, northwest of 
adagascar, but a third group, which formerly inhabited the Mas- 
carene Islands, had only recent become extinct. In order to 
derive these three groups of allied species from the same stock, it 
