40 
MADAGASCAR 
The geographical position of the island leads us to 
expect a close relationship between its fauna and that 
of the neighbouring Continent of Africa, but in reality 
this relationship does not exist at all. The animals so 
characteristic of tropical Africa are altogether absent. 
The numerous families of apes and antelopes, represented 
so fully on the continent, are entirely wanting. The 
great beasts of prey—lions, leopards, hyaenas—do not 
pass over into the district of Madagascar. Wild dogs 
have been at no time met with. It is the same 
with giraffes, elephants, zebras and rhinoceroses. The 
hippopotamus and birds of the ostrich kind have become 
extinct in recent geologic times. Birds, again, who 
might easily have crossed the Mozambique Channel, are 
strikingly specialized. 
The key to this phenomenon must be sought in the 
geological history of the island. We know that the 
animals inhabiting tropical Africa at the present time were 
originally settled in Southern Europe, and that they spread 
thence towards the south in the Miocene Period. The 
vanguard, however, was obliged to stop at the East African 
shore, for by that time Madagascar had already ceased to 
be connected with Africa. 
Thus the fauna of the island bears the stamp of high 
antiquity, as it has had to develop itself independently 
since the Eocene Period. We find among them only 
peaceful and harmless animals. 
Of the higher orders of Mammalia, the apes, as has 
been already observed, are entirely wanting, while the 
bats, from the great ease with which they travel, 
might have reached the island even after its separation. 
The smaller kinds shew an African relationship. The 
numberless flying foxes or flying dogs (Pte^^optis Edwardsii) 
are most in evidence. They especially haunt the coast 
region, and spend the whole day clinging fast by the claws 
to the branches of the large trees on the lonely islands. 
