CHAP, XIX.] 



THE MADAGASCAR GROUP. 



889 



African forms of lemurs are more nearly allied to those of 

 Madagascar than are the Asiatic, the whole series appearing to 

 be the disconnected fragments of a once more compact and 

 extensive group of animals. 



Next, we have about a dozen species of Insectivora, consisting 

 of one shrew, a group distributed over all the great continents ; 

 and five genera of a peculiar family, Gentetidse, which family 

 exists nowhere else on the globe except in the two largest West 

 Indian Islands, Cuba and Hayti, thus adding still further to 

 our embarrassment in seeking for the original home of the 

 Madagascar fauna. 



We then come to the Carnivora, vv^hich are represented by a 

 peculiar cat-like animal, Cryptoprocta, forming a distinct family, 

 and having no allies in any part of the globe ; and eight civets 

 belonging to four peculiar genera. Here we first meet with 

 some decided indications of an African origin ; for the civet 

 family is more abundant in this continent than in Asia, and some 

 of the Madagascar genera seem to be decidedly allied to African 

 groups — as, for example, Eupleres to Suricata and Crossarchus.^ 



The Rodents consist only of four rats and mice of peculiar 

 genera, one of which is said to be allied to an American genus j 

 and lastly we have a river-hog of the African genus Potamo- 

 chserus, and a small sub-fossil hippopotamus, both of which being 

 semi-aquatic animals might easily have reached the island from 

 Africa, by way of the Comoros, without any actual land-connection. 



Reptiles of Madagascar. — Passing over the birds for the 

 present, as not so clearly demonstrating land-connection, let us 

 see v/hat indications are afforded by the reptiles. The large 

 and universally distributed family of Colubrine snakes is repre- 

 sented in Madagascar, not by African or Asiatic genera, but by 

 two American genera — Philodryas and Heterodon, and by Her- 

 petodryas, a genus found in Amierica and China. The other 

 genera are all peculiar, and belong mostly to widespread tropical 

 families ; but two families — Lycodontidse and Viperidoe, both 

 abundant in Africa and the Eastern tropics — are absent. 

 Lizards are mostly represented by peculiar genera of African or 



' See Dr. J. E. Gray's ^'Revision of the Viverrida;," in Proc. ZgoI. Soc\ 

 186i, p. 607. 



