The assemblage of animals above noted is remarkable, and seems to indicate a very ancient connection with the southern portion of Africa, before the apes, ungulates, and felines had entered it. The lemurs, which are here so largely developed, are {274}represented by a single group in Africa, with two peculiar forms on the West coast. They also re-appear under peculiar and isolated forms in Southern India and Malaya, and are evidently but the remains of a once wide-spread group, since in Eocene times they inhabited North America and Europe, and very probably the whole northern hemisphere. The Insectivora are another group of high antiquity, widely scattered over the globe under a number of peculiar forms; but in no equally limited area represented by so many peculiar types as in Madagascar. South and West Africa are also rich in this order. The Carnivora of Madagascar are mostly peculiar forms of Viverridæ, or civets, a family now almost confined to the Ethiopian and Oriental regions, but which was abundant in Europe during the Miocene period. The _Potamochoerus_ is a peculiar _species_ only, which may be perhaps explained by the unusual swimming powers of swine, and the semi-aquatic habits of this genus, leading to an immigration at a later period than in the case of the other Mammalia. The same remark will apply to the small _Hippopotamus_, which was coeval with the great Struthious bird Æpiornis. Rodents are only represented by three peculiar forms of Muridæ, but it is probable that others remain to be discovered. _Birds._--Madagascar is exceedingly rich in birds, and especially in remarkable forms of Passeres. No less than 88 genera and 111 species of land-birds have been discovered, and every year some additions are being made to the list. The African families of Passeres are almost all represented, only two being absent--Paridæ and Fringillidæ, both very poorly represented in Africa itself. Among the Picariæ, however, the case is very different, no less than 7 families being absent, viz.--Picidæ, or woodpeckers; Indicatoridæ, or honey-guides; Megalæmidæ, or barbets; Musophagidæ, or plantain-eaters; Coliidæ, or colies; Bucerotidæ, or hornbills; and Irrisoridæ, or mockers. Three of these are peculiar to Africa, and all are well represented there, so that their absence from Madagascar is a very remarkable fact. The number of peculiar genera in Madagascar constitutes one of the main features of its ornithology, and many of these are so {275}isolated that it is very difficult to classify them, and they remain to this day a puzzle to ornithologists. In order to exhibit clearly the striking characteristics of the bird-fauna of this island, we shall first give a list of all the peculiar genera; another, of the genera of which the species only are peculiar; and, lastly, a list of the species which Madagascar possesses in common with the African continent.