_The Mascarene Islands._[104]--In the _Geographical Distribution of Animals_, a summary is given of all that was known of the zoology of the various islands near Madagascar, which to some extent partake of its peculiarities, and with it form the Malagasy sub-region of the Ethiopian region. As no great additions have since been made to our knowledge of the fauna of these islands, and my object in this volume being more especially to illustrate the mode of solving distributional problems by means of the most suitable examples, I shall now confine myself to pointing out how far the facts presented by these outlying islands support the views already enunciated with regard to the origin of the Madagascar fauna. _The Comoro Islands._--This group of islands is situated nearly midway between the northern extremity of Madagascar and the coast of Africa. The four chief islands vary between sixteen and forty miles in length, the largest being 180 miles from the coast of Africa, while one or two smaller islets are less than 100 miles from Madagascar. All are volcanic, Great Comoro being an active volcano 8,500 feet high; and, as already stated, they are situated on a submarine bank with less than 500 fathoms soundings, connecting Madagascar with Africa. There is reason to believe, however, that these islands are of comparatively recent origin, and that the bank has been formed by matter ejected by the volcanoes or by upheaval. Anyhow, there is no indication whatever of there having been here a land-connection between Madagascar and Africa; while the islands themselves have been mainly colonised from Madagascar, some of them making a near approach to the 100-fathom bank which surrounds that island. The Comoros contain two land mammals, a lemur and a civet, both of Madagascar genera and the latter an identical species, and there is also a peculiar species of fruit-bat (_Pteropus comorensis_), a group which ranges from Australia to Asia and Madagascar but is unknown in Africa. Of land-birds forty-one species are known, of {429} which sixteen are peculiar to the islands, twenty-one are found also in Madagascar, and three found in Africa and not in Madagascar; while of the peculiar species, six belong to Madagascar or Mascarene genera. A species of Chameleon is also peculiar to the islands. These facts point to the conclusion that the Comoro Islands have been formerly more nearly connected with Madagascar than they are now, probably by means of intervening islets and the former extension of the latter island to the westward, as indicated by the extensive shallow bank at its northern extremity, so as to allow of the easy passage of birds, and the occasional transmission of small mammalia by means of floating trees.[105]