MAMMALIA. 
13 
3. Some land-connexion must liave existed in former ages between Mada- 
gascar and India, whereon the original stock, whence the present Lemurida3 
of Africa, Madagascar, and India are descended, flourished. 
4. It must be likewise allowed that some sort of connexion must also have 
existed between Madagascar and land which now forms part of the New 
W orld — in order to permit the derivation of the Ccntctince from a common 
stock with the Solenodo7i\^*'], and to account for the fact that the Lemuridae, 
as a body, are certainly more nearly allied to the weaker forms of American 
monkeys than to any of the Simiidse of the Old World. 
ScLATER, P. L. The Mammals of Australia. Quart. Journ. 
Science, 1865, Jan. (pp. 13-19, with a lithogr. sketch). 
According to onr present knowledge, Australia is inhabited 
by 107 Implacental, and 53 Placental Mammals, viz. 29 Ro- 
dents, 23 Bats, and 1 Carnivore (the Dingo). It is, however, 
worthy of remark that the 53 Placentals belong to 11 genera, 
whilst the 107 Implacentals are referred to 16 only. The pre- 
dominance of Implacentals over Placentals distinguishes at once 
the Australian Mammal-fauna from that of every other part of 
the world. The author concludes from this, that Australia 
must have been separated from the great mass of land which 
forms the Old World at a time when Marsupialism was the pre- 
valent, if not the only, form of Mammalian life in existence 
upon our planet. The Implacental Mammals are the old indi- 
genous denizens of the eountry j the Plaeental to be regarded as 
probably nothing more than intruders of comparatively recent 
introduction f- 
ScLATER, P. L. The Mammals of South America. Quart.' 
Journ. Science, 1865, Oct. (pp. 605-621, with a lithogr. 
sketch) . 
The author discusses in systematic order the various forms of 
Terrestrial Mammals of the Neotropical region, which, from the 
number of peculiar types, he regards, after Australia, as the 
most distinct of any of the great zoological divisions of the 
world^s surface. He sums up its principal characteristics as 
follows : — 
1. The possession of two families of Qiiadriimana {Cehidm and Hapalidtd)^ 
constituting a special section of this order {Platyrhina) , peculiar to this 
region. 
2. The absence of the true frugivorous Bats {Pteropodidcc) ^ and the pre- 
[* This alleged affinity is in some measure counterbalanced by the recent 
discovery that the West African Potamogale is similarly allied to Solenodon. 
The entire absence of Felis and Canis in Madagascar appears very much to 
contradict the bold hypothesis of a connexion between Madagascar and the 
New World.] 
t See Mr. Krefft’s observation on fossil remains of the Dingo, as reported 
above, p. 2. 
