Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/778

Rh GO B I E D [DISTRIBUTION. to expect that they have any very important bearing from a zoogeographical point of view. Zanzibar is the best known, and that seems to have a few species peculiar to it for instance, Laniarius salimce, L. orientalis, and Franco- linus Jcirki, but further investigation may prove that some of them also occur on the mainland. lagas- (5.) The Madagascarian Subregion remains for considera- an Sub- tf onj an( j this from its insularity is obviously well defined, while a good deal of attention has been paid to its remark able peculiarities. Indeed, except New Zealand, it may be safely deemed the most peculiar Subregion on the earth s surface, while from the richness and multifariousness of its animal and especially of its ornithic population, New Zealand cannot for a moment be compared with it. Its principal subdivision, Madagascar itself, once possessed in the extinct gigantic bird jEpyornis a form of Ratitce, not less singular than the Ostrich or the Moa, and though some writers would fain see in the remains of this marvellous creature a realization of Oriental fables respecting the Roc, not a vestige has been recovered which can be declared to belong to any period to which history or even legend can reach, and Arabian tales are not corroborated by the hypo thesis of Professor Bianconi, while they are virtually con tradicted by the researches at home of M. Alphonse Milne- E.dwards, and Herr von Nathusius, and of M. Grandidier abroad. Three also of the satellite islands Mauritius, Reunion (Bourbon), and Rodriguez possessed brevipen- nate Birds totally dissimilar from but hardly less singular than the JZpyornis, and here the Dodo and its kindred, together with other Birds now extirpated, flourished peace fully till they felt the power of man and his agencies. But brief particulars of these extinct forms have already been given (pp. 732, 733), and we must now restrict our selves to the consideration of those which survive. This Subregion is easily divided into two provinces Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands ; but then it be comes a question whether the Comoros should not be con sidered to form a third, and also how the Seychelles should be treated. Not without scruples we propose to refer the latter to the Mascarene province as an outlying group, and to regard the former in the same light in reference to the Malagash province or Madagascar proper.
 * agask Long studied as the Birds of Madagascar have been,

dnce. hardly a year now passes without some new form being added to its list; and what is especially remarkable is that a very large proportion of the additions are not merely new species of genera previously known, but are the types of undeniably good and new genera, while it would seem also as if many of these had a very limited range in the island, for every fresh district visited by a collector is almost sure to produce something which neither he nor his predecessors have met with in other parts, though the actual distance between the localities may be inconsider able. The number of genera of Land-birds amounts to nearly 100, and of them almost one-half are peculiar to the Subregion ; by far the greatest number of them be longing to the Order Passeres, though the Picarice are also well represented by peculiar genera, and the Psittaci and Columbce possess to a certain extent the same characteris tics. Many of the genera belonging to the two Orders first named can be but with difficulty referred to any family existing elsewhere, but for fear of exaggerating the singular character of the Subregion we prefer regarding two only of these families as absolutely peculiar. These are Lepto- somidce and Eurycerotidce, the single genus and species con stituting each of which it seems impossible to place with any other family. /Almost the same may be said of the genera Brachypteracias, Geoltiastes, and Atelornis, which may per haps be linked in one group, though to what family it should be attached seems very doubtful ; and there is Philepitta so isolated that by one author it is referred to the Turdidce, by another to the Paradiseidce, and by a third to the Pittidce, the probability being that each assig nation is wide of the mark. But the avifauna of Mada gascar is not entirely composed of such singularities as these. We have homely genera, even among the Passeres, occurring there, such as Acrocephahis, Motacilla, Pratin- cola, and Alauda, while a Cisticola, which, though it has received a distinct trivial name, is undistinguishable from the well-known Fantail-Warbler (C. scJwenicola) of southern Europe, Africa, and India, has long been known as an in habitant of Madagascar. But there are also species, though not Passerine, which are absolutely identical with those of Britain Ahico flammeus, Coturnix communis, Porzana pygmcea, and Podiceps minor all of them common in the island. The number of species of Birds hitherto found in Madagascar cannot be safely put at less than 200, of which 120 are Land-birds, and of these latter fully 100 are peculiar. The Comoros, so far as they have been explored, have yielded more than 20 Land-birds, of which 12 at least are peculiar, the remainder being common to Madagascar; but, no doubt, throughout every part of the Malagash province there is room for further discoveries. The principal islands of the Mascarene province have Masci had their original fauna so largely destroyed by coloniza- l n ovi tion, as has just been stated, that we are hardly in a condition to judge its peculiarities accurately. Mauritius and Reunion, lying within sight of each other, and possess ing about the same number of existing species, seem not to have more than 3 in common. There is 1 genus (Oxynotus) belonging to the Campephagidce which is peculiar to these two islands, and represented in each by a distinct species. Reunion also had within the memory of men yet living a peculiar genus of Sturnidae Fregilupus. Rodriguez is now known to possess only 4 species of Land-birds natural to it ; and of these 3 are peculiar, 1 being the Parrakeet before mentioned as on the verge of extinction, and another an aberrant form of Drymceca, pointing possibly to a common origin with certain Indian species. 1 The Land- birds of the Seychelles which have not been introduced are 14 in number, and of these 12, according to Mr Edward Newton (Ibis, 1867, p. 359), are peculiar; but there is no good genus which can be so termed. Finally, we may mention that the small island of Aldabra has a Dove which has been described as a distinct species, and that of St Denis a Water-hen which probably merits the same remark. Taken as a whole, we cannot but be struck with the force of the evidence as to the land-connection which must once have existed though not necessarily all at once between the various units forming the whole Subregion. Even the scanty remnant that is left enables one to see how the denizens of its most distant quarters represent one another, a clear token of their long-continued isolation and the working of a differentiating power. But this is no place to pursue theories. VI. TKE INDIAN REGION 2 completes our survey of the 1 This same leaning towards India is also indicated by the genus Hypsipetes, one of the Turdidce, all the members of which, save 4, belong to the Indian region, and these four are peculiar respectively to Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, and it would be easy to cite similar cases of isolated Birds of either the Indian or Ethiopian Region which have their nearest relatives natives of the other. 2 It must be mentioned that objection has frequently, and not with out show of reason, been taken to the name &quot; Indian &quot; applied to this Region ; and, except for the awkwardness of the title, we must admit that &quot; Indo-Malayan &quot; would have most likely been found a more ex pressive and suitable epithet, since what we commonly mean by &quot;India&quot; forms but a small and perhaps not the most characteristic portion. Mr Wallace proposes to use the name &quot;Oriental,&quot; against^ which it may be not unreasonably urged that it errs on the side 01 vagueness, just as &quot; Indian &quot; does on the side of particularity. On the