which appear to maintain their
existence by their nocturnal and arboreal habits, and by haunting dense
forests. It can hardly be said that the African forms of lemurs are more
nearly allied to those of Madagascar than are the Asiatic, the whole series
appearing to be the disconnected fragments of a once more compact and
extensive group of animals.

Next, we have about a dozen species of Insectivora, consisting of one
shrew, a group distributed over all the great continents; and five genera
of a peculiar family, Centetidae, which family exists nowhere else on the
globe except in the two largest West Indian Islands, Cuba and Hayti, thus
adding still further to our embarrassment in seeking for the original home
of the Madagascar fauna.

We then come to the Carnivora, which are represented by a peculiar cat-like
animal, Cryptoprocta, forming a distinct family, and having no close allies
in any part of the globe; and eight civets belonging to four peculiar
genera. Here we first meet with some decided indications of an African
origin; for the civet family is more abundant in this continent than in
Asia, and some of the Madagascar genera seem to be decidedly allied to
African groups--as, for example, Eupleres to Suricata and Crossarchus.[97]

The Rodents consist only of four rats and mice of peculiar genera, one of
which is said to be allied to an American genus; and lastly we have a
river-hog of the African genus Potamochaerus, and a small sub-fossil
hippopotamus, both of which being semi-aquatic animals might easily have
reached the island from Africa, by way of the Comoros, without any actual
land connection.[98]

_Reptiles of Madagascar._--Passing over the birds for the present, as not
so clearly demonstrating {418} land-connection, let us see what indications
are afforded by the reptiles. The large and universally distributed family
of Colubrine snakes is represented in Madagascar, not by African or Asiatic
genera, but by two American genera--Philodryas and Heterodon, and by
Herpetodryas, a genus found in America and China. The other genera are all
peculiar, and belong mostly to widespread tropical families; but two
families--Lycodontidae and Viperidae, both abundant in Africa and the
Eastern tropics--are absent. Lizards are mostly represented by peculiar
genera of African or tropical families, but several African genera are
represented by peculiar species, and there are also some species belonging
to two American gen