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Show 382 ISLAND LIFE. [PAR'l' II. h 1 s of islands, which, We shall now pass on to anot er c .as ts were separated though originally forming parts of co;~~ne:n;iquity is clearly from them .at ve~y re~~te epoch:· whi:~ present many peenmanifested m theu ex1stmg faun~ ' bl to the student liaritics, and offer some most cunous pro ems of distribution. CHAPTER XIX. ANCIENT CONTINENTAL ISLANDS: THE MADAGASCAR GROUP. Hemarks on Ancient Continental Islands- Physical features of Madagascar - Biological features of Mndagascar-Mammalia-Reptiles- Relation of Madagascar to Africa- Early history of Africa and MadagascarAnomalies of distribution and how to explain them-The birds of Madagascar as indicating a supposed Lemurian Continent- Submerged Islands between Madagascar and India-Concluding remarks on "Lemuria "-The Mascarene Islands-The Comoro Islands- The Seychelles Archipelago-Birds of the Seychelles-Reptiles and Amphibia-Freshwater Fishes-Land Shells-Mauritius, Bourbon, and Rodriguez-Birds --Extinct Birds and their probable origin-Reptiles- Flora of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands-Curious relations of Mascarene plants-Endemic genAra of Mauritius and Seychelles-Fragmentary character of the Mascarene Flora-Flora of Madagascar allied to that of South Africa- Preponderance of Ferns in the Mascarene FloraConcluding remarks on the Madagascar Group. WE have now to consider the phenomena presented by a very distinct class of islands-those which, although once forming part of a continent, have been separated from it at a remote epoch when its animal forms were very unlike what they are now. Such islands preserve to us the record of a by-gone world,-of a period when many of the higher types had not yet come into existence and when the distribution of other3 was very different from what prevails at the present day. The problem presented by these ancient islands is often complicated by the changes they themselves have undergone since the period of their separation. .A partial subsidence will have led to the extinction of some of the types that were originally preserved, |