CHAP, XIX.] 
THE MADAGASCAR GROUP. 
389 
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, Centetidae, 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, which 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 . 1 
The Rodents consist only of four rats and mice of peculiar 
genera, one of which is said to be allied to an American genus ; 
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 what 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 America and China. The other 
genera are all peculiar, and belong mostly to widespread tropical 
families; but two families — Lycodontidse and Yiperidse, both 
abundant in Africa and the Eastern tropics — are absent. 
Lizards are mostly represented by peculiar genera of African or 
1 See Dr. J. E. Gray’s “Revision of the Yiverridfe,” in Proc. Zool. Soc % 
186 i, p. 507. 
