GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | -- -- -- 4 |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|-- -- -- 4 |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- -- | | | | | The Centetidæ are small animals, many of them having a spiny covering, whence the species of _Centetes_ have been called Madagascar hedgehogs. The genera _Centetes_ (2 species), _Hemicentetes_ (1 species), _Ericulus_ (1 species), _Echinops_ (3 species), and the recently described _Oryzorictes_ (1 species), are all exclusively inhabitants of Madagascar, and are almost or quite tail-less. The remaining genus, _Solenodon_, is a more slender and active animal, with a long, rat-like tail, shrew-like head, and coarse fur; and the two known species are among the very few indigenous mammals of the West Indian islands, one being found in Cuba (Plate XVII., vol. ii., p. 67), the other in Hayti. Although presenting many points of difference in detail, the essential characters of this curious animal are, according to Professors Peters and Mivart, identical with the rest of the Centetidæ. We have thus a most remarkable and well-established case of discontinuous distribution, two portions of the same family {189}being now separated from each other by an extensive continent, as well as by a deep ocean. _Extinct Species._--Remains found in the Lower Miocene of the South of France are believed to belong to the genus _Echinops_, or one closely allied to it. FAMILY 19.--POTAMOGALIDÆ. (1 Genus, 1 Species.) GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | -- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|-- 2 -- -- |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- -- | | | | | The genus _Potamogale_ was founded on a curious, small, otter-like animal from West Africa, first found by M. Du Chaillu at the Gaboon, and afterwards by the Portuguese at Angola. Its affinities are with several groups of Insectivora, but it is sufficiently peculiar to require the establishment of a distinct family for its reception. (Plate V., vol. i., p. 264.) FAMILY 20.--CHRYSOCHLORIDÆ. (2 Genera, 3 Species.)