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ISLAND LIFE. 
[rART II. 
most recent origin and offering the simplest phenomena; and 
begin with the British Isles as affording the best example of 
very recent and well known Continental Islands. Reviewing 
the interesting past history of Britain, we show why it is com- 
paratively poor in species and why this poverty is still greater 
in Ireland. By a careful examination of its fauna and flora it 
is then shown that the British Isles are not so completely 
identical, biologically, with the continent as has been supposed. 
A considerable amount of speciality is shown to exist, and that 
this speciality is real and not apparent is supported by the 
fact, that small outlying islands, such as the Isle of Man, the 
Shetland Isles, Lundy Island, and the Isle of Wight, all possess 
certain species or varieties not found elsewhere. 
Borneo and Java are next taken, as illustrations of tropical 
islands which may be not more ancient than Britain, but which, 
owing to their much larger area, greater distance from the 
continent, and the extreme richness of the equatorial fauna and 
flora, possess a large proportion of peculiar species, though these 
are in general very closely allied to those of the adjacent parts 
of Asia. The preliminary studies we have made enable us to 
afford a simpler and more definite interpretation of the peculiar 
relations of Java to the continent and its differences from 
Borneo and Sumatra, than was given in my former work ( The 
Geographical Distribution of Animals). 
Japan and Formosa are next taken, as examples of islands 
which are decidedly somewhat more ancient than those pre- 
viously considered, and which present a number of very inter- 
esting phenomena, especially in their relations to each other, 
and to remote rather than to adjacent parts of the Asiatic 
continent. 
We now pass to the group of Ancient Continental Islands, 
of which Madagascar is the most typical example. It is sur- 
rounded by a number of smaller islands which may be termed 
its satellites since they partake of many of its peculiarities ; 
though some of these — as the Comoros and Seychelles may be 
considered continental, while others — as Bourbon, Mauritius, 
and Rodriguez — are decidedly oceanic. In order to understand 
the peculiarities of the Madagascar fauna we have to consider 
