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186 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [part IV.
the limitation of types, and the peculiarities of distribution we
now find to exist.
Order III.—INSECTIVORA.
Family 14.—GALEOPITHECID^. (1 Genus, 2 Species.)
Neotropical
sub-rfoions.
Nearctic
Sub-regions.
General Distribution.
Pal^arctic
sub-hegions.
Ethiopian
Sub-regions.
Oriental
Sub-regions.
Australian
Sub-regions.
The singular and isolated genus Galeopithecus, or flying lemur,
has been usually placed among the Lemuroidea, but it is now
considered to come best at the head of the Insectivora. Its food
howev,er, seems to be purely vegetable, and the very small, blind,
and naked young, closely attached to the wrinkled skin of the
mother's breast, perhaps indicates some affinity with the Marsu-
pials. This animal seems, in fact, to be a lateral offshoot of
some low form, which has survived during the process of development
of the Insectivora, the Lemuroidea, and the Marsupials,
from an ancestral type. Only two species are known, one
found in Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo, but not in Java ; the
other in the Philippine islands (Plate VIII. vol. i. p. 337).
Family 15.—MACEOSCELIDID^. (3 Genera, 10 Species.)
Neotropical
Sub-regions.
Nearctic
Sub-regions.
General Distribution.
pal.earctic
Sub-regions.
Ethiopian
Sub-regions.
Oriental
Sub-regions.
Australian
Sub-regions.
The Macroscelides, or elephant shrews, are extraordinaiy little
animals, with trunk-like snout and kangaroo-like hind-legs.
They are almost confined to South Africa, whence they extend
up the east coast as far as the Zambezi and Mozambique. A