56 Animal Geography . [January, 
than the Australian region), three of which are peculiar, 
whilst the Lemuridas — although extending to continental 
Africa, the Malay Islands, India, and China — have evidently 
their metropolis in Madagascar, where they take the place 
of the monkeys. Of its twenty-seven genera and sixty-live 
species, no fewer than twenty genera and all the species are 
peculiar.^ Out of its one hundred and eleven species of land 
birds only twelve are identical with species inhabiting the 
adjacent continents, and not one of the exclusively African 
families is represented in Madagascar. The gigantic extinCt 
bird iEpyornis, three species of which have been discovered, 
forming the family iEpyornithidse, as far as is known was 
peculiar to Madagascar and the adjoining islands. Among 
reptiles it contains none of the African Colubers, but it has 
three genera — Herpetodryas , Philodryas, and Heterodon — 
which are only found elsewhere in North and South America, 
whilst the Lycodontidse and Viperidse, both well developed 
in Africa, are here absent. Its inseCt affinities are largely 
Oriental, Australian, and South-American, the African ele- 
ment being represented rather by special forms belonging to 
West Africa or South Africa than by such as are common 
to the whole Ethiopian region. Amongst the Lepidoptera 
the beautiful diurnal moth Urania occurs here, the remaining 
species being found only in the Neotropical region. Of the 
twenty-three Cetonian genera known in Madagascar, two 
alone — according to the “ British Museum Catalogue ” — 
are represented elsewhere. None of the characteristic 
Cicindelas of Africa are here met with, and with the Carabs 
the case is almost similar. Having regard to these faCts, 
most if not all of which are duly recorded by Mr. Wallace, 
it certainly seems that “ Lemuria,” if not a primary region, 
differs more widely from the other Ethiopian sub-regions 
than they do from each other, or perhaps even than do the 
respective sub-regions of any other region. 
The subdivision of the six primary regions is the next 
question. Mr. Wallace proposes in every case four sub- 
regions, a numerical agreement which, if fully borne out by 
faCts, is exceedingly curious. Doubts, however, may be en- 
tertained both as regards the number and the boundaries of 
these subdivisions. In the NearCtic or North-American 
region the four districts are- — the Californian, consisting of 
Upper California and the narrow strip of country to the 
northwards between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific ; 
the Rocky Mountains, embracing Lower California, the 
table-lands of Mexico, and the mountainous territories ex- 
tending northwards towards the British frontier ; the Appa- 
