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Show 1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. 207 ^he Asiatic and African Cats are distinct, except the Lion, Leopard, Caracal, and Chetah. Twenty-six species seem to be peculiar to Asia, and only six to Africa. Ten species are peculiar to America. The Indian archipelago is very rich in species; and the island of Bali seems their extreme limit. The Tiger is found there. Two species of Lynx and the Wild Cat are European. The Hyanida are almost entirely African, and three of its five species South-African. H. striata alone extends into Western Asia and Northern Africa. The family Viverrida is exclusively confined to the Old World, and has but two representatives-a Genet and an Ichneumon (Genetta vulgaris and Herpestes ichneumon)-in Europe. Apart from the Ichneumons and Paradoxures, twelve species are Asiatic and twenty African. The Ichneumons are divided, as before-said, into thirteen Asiatic and seven African. The Paradoxures are all Asiatic, but are not well defined as to species ; if we accept provisionally the number (twelve) of Dr. Gray \ that will give a total of thirty-seven Asiatic forms of Viverrida, and thirty-two African forms. Besides these, eight species are found in Madagascar. No species is common to Asia and the continent of Africa, except Genetta vulgaris and Herpestes ichneumon. No species appears to be common to Madagascar and the continent of Africa, a species of Crossarchus found there having been probably introduced by man. No species is common to Madagascar and Asia except Viverricula, that wandering Jew amongst the Viverrida, the extensive range of which has been already indicated2. The other Madagascar species are Fossa, Eupleres, and the four species of Galidictina and Cryptoprocta. Thus Madagascar, containing as it does examples of all five subfamilies of Viverrida, has by far the most peculiar Viverrine fauna of the whole world. Next to it comes Borneo, with its Prionodon, Arctictis, Cynogale, Hemigalea, Parodoxuri, and Herpestes; and the Indian Archipelago generally is rich in Viverrine life as well as being inhabited by the Cats F. macrocelis, F. marmoratus, F. planiceps, and F. badia. The Viverrine section of the subfamily Viverrina are pretty equally divided between Asia and Africa ; with the exception of the West- African Nandinia, the paradoxurine section of the Viverrina are entirely Asiatic. As a rule the Viverrina as to species are predominantly Asiatic, while the Herpestina are predominantly African, and especially South-African, As regards genera, the Viverrina have six genera peculiar to Africa, and one to Madagascar, while three (Viverra, Viverricula, and Genetta) are common to both the continents. As regards genera, the subfamily Herpestina has no less than six peculiar to Africa, and not one Asiatic genus which is not also found in Africa, the only genus common to the two continents being Herpestes. 1 Cat. of Carnivora in Brit. Mus., p. 63. 2 See ante, p. 149. |