Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1894 — Animal Wonders of Madagascar. [ARTICLE]

Animal Wonders of Madagascar.

An extraordinary natural history has Madagascar, delares Canon Tristram. One would suppose that this would be that of Africa, but it is so unlike as to prove that the Island has been separated from Africa for an immense period of time. Its animals and plants, as well as its people, have a far greater resmblance to those of India than to those of the near mainland. The monkeys and the lemurs of Madagascar are not to be found' in Africa, while all the great African animals of prey are absent. Among the lemurs is one known as the ayeaye, the formation of whose digits is unique. f The egg of an extinct bird of Madagascar is fifteen times the bulk of that of an ostrich, and yet the bird itself does not appear to have been larger than the New England moa, an extinct bird to which it had an affinity. This same peculiarity runs through all the birds of Madagascar. The water birds and sea fowl are, of course, those of Africa, but there are one or two extraordinary exceptions. The beautiful snake bird, allied to the cormorant, is an Indian species. There is also a water hen which is peculiar to Madagascar, and which has the remarkable features of a long tail and long foot. It is a great puzzle to naturalists. A groiip of cuckoos »is peculiar to the island, with no relations in Africa or India; while a bird allied to the thrushes is not African, but is allied to a species in the Mauritius and all the Mascarene islands.—[Trenton American.