n species or varieties not found elsewhere.

Borneo and Java are next taken, as illustrations of tropical islands which
may be not more ancient than Britain, but which, owing to their much larger
area, greater distance from the continent, and the extreme richness of the
equatorial fauna and flora, possess a large proportion of peculiar species,
though these are in general very closely allied to those of the adjacent
parts of Asia. The {541} preliminary studies we have made enable us to
afford a simpler and more definite interpretation of the peculiar relations
of Java to the continent and its differences from Borneo and Sumatra, than
was given in my former work (_The Geographical Distribution of Animals_).

Japan and Formosa are next taken, as examples of islands which are
decidedly somewhat more ancient than those previously considered, and which
present a number of very interesting phenomena, especially in their
relations to each other, and to remote rather than to adjacent parts of the
Asiatic continent.

We now pass to the group of Ancient Continental Islands, of which
Madagascar is the most typical example. It is surrounded by a number of
smaller islands which may be termed its satellites since they partake of
many of its peculiarities; though some of these--as the Comoros and
Seychelles--may be considered continental, while others--as Bourbon,
Mauritius, and Rodriguez--are decidedly oceanic. In order to understand the
peculiarities of the Madagascar fauna we have to consider the past history
of the African and Asiatic continents, which it is shown are such as to
account for all the main peculiarities of the fauna of these islands
without having recourse to the hypothesis of a now-submerged Lemurian
continent. Considerable evidence is further adduced to show that "Lemuria"
is a myth, since not only is its existence unnecessary, but it can be
proved that it would not explain the actual facts of distribution. The
origin of the interesting Mascarene wingless birds is discussed, and the
main peculiarities of the remarkable flora of Madagascar and the Mascarene
islands pointed out; while it is shown that all these phenomena are to be
explained on the general principles of the permanence of the great oceans
and the comparatively slight fluctuations of the land area, and by taking
account of established palaeontological facts.

There remain two other islands--Celebes and New Zealand--which are classed
as "anomalous," th