258 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
coast of Africa. Some Galagos are found as far south as Port Natal, and the thick-tailed species 
inhabits both the eastern and the western coasts of the continent, and the central parts also. Others 
have been found near the Gaboon and in Fernando Po, Senegal, and Gambia, and in the country of 
Sennaar and near the White Nile. The Aye-Aye is essentially a Madagascar form. The Nycticebidan 
family has a wide geographical range. Thus, the species of the genus Loris are found in Ceylon, in 
Southern India at Pondicherry, and in Hindostan; the genus Nycticebus lias one species in Borneo 
and Sumatra, a second in J ava, and a third in China. On the contrary, the remaining genera, Pero- 
dicticus and Aretocebus, are limited to the west coast of Africa, none of them being found in the 
intermediate regions of that continent or in Madagascar. Finally, the Tarsidse, according to Wallace, 
inhabit Borneo, Celebes, and some other neighbouring islands, the species being the same in all localities. 
How is the widespread distribution of the animals of the sub-order to be explained 'l On the pre- 
sumption that they all sprang from one parent stock, it is necessary to suggest the occurrence of vast 
geographical changes in bygone age s, such, for instance, as the former connection of Madagascar and 
the mainland of Africa, and their separation ; the former existence and subsequent subsidence of a vast 
tract of land between Hindostan and Africa, north of and remote from Madagascar ; and the former 
continuity of land where there are now the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. It is necessary 
also to assume that Ceylon was united to Hindostan; and the great islands just mentioned to the con- 
tinent of Asia. The land which was intermediate between Hindostan and Africa has been called 
Lemuria by Dr. Sclater, and its theoretical existence explains the otherwise incomprehensible presence 
of Giraffes and Hippopotami, now purely African genera, in the olden time in Asia. Geology rather 
favours these views. The first Lemuroida swarmed amongst the forests of these vast countries, and 
their descendants cut off from each other by geographical changes are now limited to very remote 
localities. 
The fossil remains of Lemuroida, or of animals whose skulls resemble somewhat those of the sub- 
order, have been found in the Eocene of the Western territories, of the United States, and also in the 
south of France. 
The particular muscles of the hand, arm, and shoulder which characterise the Monkeys, and which have been described 
in the former chapters, are found in the Lemuroids ; and Murie and Mivart have already shown that in the Lemuroids the 
muscles agree mainly with those of Monkeys, and others bear certain resemblances to those of animals lower in the scale. 
Moreover, the Lemurs possess a unique band of fleshy fibres, which stretch between the shin-bone and the adjoining small 
Lone of the leg, which would seem to serve in aiding the turning of the limb (the rotator fibulas) . 
James Murie. 
P Martin Duncan. 
