Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. 335 
gascar with Africa as beyond doubt—a junction which, how¬ 
ever, must have terminated before the inroad into Africa of 
the more highly organized Mammals—every one will allow 
this opinion to be at all events well founded. But when he 
proceeds to state that the fauna of Madagascar is manifestly 
of African origin his assurances are based upon very slender 
grounds. In truth the individuality of the fauna of Mada¬ 
gascar is so unique that even that of New Zealand can hardly 
be compared with it. Wallace's attempted parallel between 
Madagascar and Africa, and the Antilles and South America, 
is, in our eyes, sufficiently disproven by the occurrence in the 
Antilles of Trochilidse, one of the most characteristic forms 
of South America. But in Madagascar not a single one of 
the genera most characteristic of Africa occurs. This origi¬ 
nality of the fauna is much too pronounced to allow Mada¬ 
gascar to be treated only as a “Subregion'’ or as an “aber¬ 
rant part" of the Ethiopian Region. 
As already remarked, Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire rightly 
put forward the remarkable relations of the fauna of the 
Madagascarian Subregion to India, at a time when it was 
very imperfectly known. To our astonishment we meet with, 
in both its subdivisions (Madagascar and the Mascarenes), 
the truly Indian genus Hypsipetes. Not less strange is the 
appearance of the genus Copsychus in Madagascar and the 
Seychelles, of the Indian type of Dicrurus (as represented by 
D. waldeni ) on the Comoros, and of Plotus melanogaster in¬ 
stead of its African representative in Madagascar. Two birds 
of this island, Ninox lugubris and a Cisticola, are hardly sepa¬ 
rable from Indian species. Two others, Scops rutilus and 
Anas bernieri , are so like Scops menadensis and Anas gibberi- 
frons that they are not easily distinguishable. The Indian 
Charadrius geoffroyi is no rarity in Madagascar. Dromas 
and Gygis, two characteristic forms of this subregion, one of 
Indian, the other of Oceanic origin' estrange it from Africa. 
A typical Ploceus of Madagascar (P. sakalava) belongs to the 
Indian philippinus group. The peculiar Hartlaubia is nearer 
to the Upper-Indian Psaroglossa than to any African form. 
The Indo-Australian group of the Artamidse surprises us in 
