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Show 402 ISLAND LIFE. [rAnT JI. . r 1y Indian are, -Cop- Africa. The O'enera wh10h are more pecu Iar d p 1 .. b • d · M d gascar · an a reorn1s, sychus and Hypsipetes, also .f o.u n md Ra oad n~ o-uez ' as wel l as one which has species in Mauntms an o ' . . f Af . A black parrot (Coracopsis)' con-on the contment o . nca. . h b't Madao-ascar an d WI' th one generic with two spemes t.hat m a. I d a boe aut!·r u 1 re d -11 ead c d t.hat is peculiar to the Comoros' an . l f M d l 1 • • ) alb ed to t 10se o a a-blue piO'eon (Alectora;nas pz(; crter? tmus 1 bl b l M ·t· but very distinct are the most remar m o gascar anc aun IUS, .' s ecies characteristic of this group of Islands. . P . d A 1 'b ·/'i oif the Seychelles.- The reptiles Repttles an mpr~t tw . · · d' d h n,n n,mp I'b ' ther numerous and very mterestmg, m Icat- 1a are ra . m. g c1 e ar1 y th a t the islands can hardly be . classed a.s oceamc. There are five species of lizards, three bemg. peculiar to the 1· s1 a nd s, w h'l the two others have a r::tther wide range. The 1 e . . . fi rst I·S a ch arne leon- defenceless slow-movmg hz::trds, espee1a1ly abundant in Madagascar, from which no less than twenty-one speci· es are now k. nown , about the sam.e number as .o n . th.e continent of Africa. The Seychelles speCies ( Ohameleo t1,gns) IS li::tr to the islands. The next is one of the skinks (Euprepes peen 'd d' 'b . cyanogaster), small ground-lizards .with ~ ve~y w1 o Istn utl.on in the E::tstern Hemisphere. This species IS, however, pecuhar to the islands. The other peculiar species is one of the geckoes (Phelsuma seychellensis). An East African species (P. cepediamts) is also found in the Seychelles, as well as in the Comoro Islands, Bourbon, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Rodriguez; and th: re is also a thjrd gecko of another genus (Peropus .m~dtlatus) which is found also in Mauritius, Bourbon, Rodnguez, and Ceylon and even 'in PenanO' and the Philippine Islands. Those lizards,' clinging as they rlob to trees and timber, are excee d'm g ]. Y liable to be carried in ships from one country to another, and I am told by Dr. Gunther that some are found almost every y~ar in the London Docks. It is therefore probable, that when sp: Cies of this family have a very wide range they have been. as.s1sted in their migrations by man, though their ba~it of clm?mg to trees also renders them likely to be floated with large p1eces of timber to consider~ble distances. Dr. Percival "\Vright, to whom I am indebted for much information on the productions of t~e Seychelles Archipelago, informs me that the last-named species CHAr. XIX.] THE MADAGASCAR GROUP. 403 varies greatly in colour in the different isbnds, so that he could always tell from which particular island a specimen had been brought. This is analogous to the curious fact of certain lizards o~ the s~all islands in the Mediterranean being always very different m colour from those of the mainland, usually becoming rich blue or black (see Natt(;re,' Vol. XIX. p. 97); and we thus learn how readily in some cases differences of colour n,re brouO'ht about by local conditions. b Snakes, as is usua1ly the case in small or remote islands are far less numerous than lizards, only two species being kn~wn. One, JJ_Tomicus seychellensis, is a peculiar species of the family Colubndre, the rest of the genus being found in Madagascar and South America. The other, Boodon geometrim(;s, one of the Lycodontidre, or fanged ground-snakes, inhabits also South and West Africa. So far, then, as the reptiles are concerned, there is nothing but what is easily explicable by \Vhat we know of the general means of di~tribution of these animals. We now come to the Amphibia, which are represented in the Seychelles by two tailless and two serpent-like forms. The frogs are, Rana masca1·iensis, found also in :Mauritius, Bourbon, Angola, and Abyssinia, and probably all over tropical Africa; and Me,qalixalus infraruf~(;S, a tree-frog altogether peculiar to the islands, and forming a peculiar genus of the widespread tropical family Polypedatidre. It is found, Dr. Wright informs me, on the Pandani or screw-pines; and as these form a very characterjstic portion of the vegetation of the Mascarene Islands, all the species being peculiar and confined each to a single island or small group, we may perhaps consider it as a relic of the indigenous fauna of that more extensive land of which the present islands are the remains. The serpentine Amphibia are represented by two species of Crecilia. These creatures externally resemble large worms, except that they have a true head with jaws and rudimentary eyes, while internally they have of course a true vertebrate skeleton. They live underground, burrowing by means of the ring-like folds of the skin which simulate the jointed segments of a worm's body, and when caught they exude a viscid slime. The young have external gills which are afterwards replaced by D D 2 |
