CH. Ill] MASCARENE BIRDS. 177 



tailless and underground Amphibia particularly character- 

 istic of Ceylon. Mr Blanford instances the Seychelles as 

 the only thoroughly authenticated case of an oceanic 

 island composed of granitoid rocks. This however only 

 takes us necessarily as far as a possible former connection 

 with Madagascar, which Mr Wallace admits, though pre- 

 mising that if this and the other island groups in the 

 neighbourhood were ever connected with each other and 

 with Madagascar "it was probably at a very remote 

 period." There now remain the characters of the fauna 

 of the Mascarene region for consideration. So far as 

 concerns the Mammals and Birds the evidence is not so 

 strong, or rather it need hardly be considered as any indi- 

 cation of a former connection with India. 



The mammals, as has been already pointed out, are 

 either African or altogether peculiar, chiefly the latter. 

 It is true that there are Oriental birds in Madagascar, 

 but these are, as Mr Wallace acutely points out, " slightly 

 modified forms of existing Indian genera or... species 

 hardly distinguishable from those of India." This argu- 

 ment, triumphantly adduced by Dr Hartlaub as evidence 

 of the former " Lemuria," really points precisely the other 

 way. Apart altogether from the ready means of migration 

 possessed by birds — birds offer most unreliable evidence 

 in proving a matter of this kind — we should expect on the 

 hypothesis of a former land connection with India not to 

 find such close resemblances; what is wanted to prove 

 the theory of those who believe in " Lemuria," and use 

 birds to support their theory, is to discover Mascarene 

 birds which though presenting certain likenesses to those 

 B. z. 12 



