The Seychelles Archipelago.—This interesting group consists of about thirty small islands situated 700 miles N.N.E. of Madagascar, or almost exactly in the line formed by continuing the central ridge of that great island. The Seychelles stand upon a rather extensive shallow bank, the 100-fathom line around them enclosing an area nearly 200 miles long by 100 miles wide, while the 500-fathom line shows an extension of nearly 100 miles in a southern direction. All the larger islands are of granite, with mountains rising to 3,000 feet in Mahé, and to from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in several of the other islands. We can therefore hardly doubt that they form a portion of the great line of upheaval which produced the central granitic mass of Madagascar, intervening points being indicated by the Amirantes, the Providence, and the Farquhar Islands, which, though all coralline, probably rest on a granitic basis. Deep channels of more than 1,000 fathoms now separate these islands from each other, and if they were ever sufficiently elevated to be united, it was probably at a very remote epoch.
The Seychelles may thus have had ample facilities for receiving from Madagascar such immigrants as can pass over narrow seas; and, on the other hand, they were equally favourably situated as regards the extensive Saya de Malha and Cargados banks, which were probably once
large islands, and may have supported a rich insular flora and fauna of mixed Mascarene and Indian type. The existing fauna and flora of the Seychelles must therefore be looked upon as the remnants which have survived the partial submergence of a very extensive island; and the entire absence of non-aërial mammalia may be due, either to this island having never been actually united to Madagascar, or to its having since undergone so much submergence as to have led to the extinction of such mammals as may once have inhabited it. The birds and reptiles, however, though few in number, are very interesting, and throw some further light on the past history of the Seychelles.
Birds of the Seychelles.—Fifteen indigenous land-birds are known to inhabit the group, thirteen of which are peculiar species,[[158]] belonging to genera which occur also in Madagascar or Africa. The genera which are more peculiarly Indian are,—Copsychus and Hypsipetes, also found in Madagascar; and Palæornis, which has species in Mauritius and Rodriguez, as well as one on the continent of Africa. A black parrot (Coracopsis), congeneric with two species that inhabit Madagascar and with one that is peculiar to the Comoros; and a beautiful red-headed blue pigeon (Alectorænas pulcherrimus) allied to those of Madagascar and Mauritius, but very distinct, are the most remarkable species characteristic of this group of islands.
Reptiles and Amphibia of the Seychelles.—The reptiles and amphibia are rather numerous and very interesting, indicating clearly that the islands can hardly be classed as oceanic. There are seven species of lizards, three being peculiar to the islands, while the others have rather a wide range. The first is a chameleon—defenceless
slow-moving lizards, especially abundant in Madagascar, from which no less than eighteen species are now known, about the same number as on the continent of Africa. The Seychelles species (Chamæleon tigris) also occurs at Zanzibar. The next are skinks (Scincidæ), small ground-lizards with a wide distribution in the Eastern hemisphere. Two species are however peculiar to the islands—Mabuia seychellensis and M. wrightii. The other peculiar species is one of the geckoes (Geckotidæ) named Æluronyx seychellensis, and there are also three other geckoes, Phelsuma madagascarensis, Gehyra mutilata and Hemidactylus frenatus, the two latter having a wide distribution in the tropical regions of both hemispheres. These lizards, clinging as they do to trees and timber, are exceedingly liable to be carried in ships from one country to another, and I am told by Dr. Günther that some are found almost every year in the London Docks. It is therefore probable, that when species of this family have a very wide range they have been assisted in their migrations by man, though their habit of clinging to trees also renders them likely to be floated with large pieces of timber to considerable distances. Dr. Percival Wright, to whom I am indebted for much information on the productions of the Seychelles Archipelago, informs me that the last-named species varies greatly in colour in the different islands, 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 on the small islands in the Mediterranean being always very different in colour from those of the mainland, usually becoming rich blue or black (see Nature, Vol. XIX. p. 97); and we thus learn how readily in some cases differences of colour are brought about, either directly or indirectly, by local conditions.
Snakes, as is usually the case in small or remote islands, are far less numerous than lizards, only two species being known. One, Dromicus seychellensis, is a peculiar species of the family Colubridæ, the rest of the genus being found in Madagascar and South America. The other, Boodon geometricus, one of the Lycodontidæ, or fanged ground-snakes, is also peculiar. So far, then, as the reptiles are
concerned, there is nothing but what is easily explicable by what we know of the general means of distribution 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 mascareniensis, found also in Mauritius, Bourbon, Angola, and Abyssinia, and probably all over tropical Africa; and Megalixalus seychellensis a peculiar tree-frog having allies in Madagascar and tropical Africa. It is found, Dr. Wright informs me, on the Pandani or screw-pines; and as these form a very characteristic 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 Cæcilia. 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 true lungs, and this peculiar metamorphosis shows that they belong to the amphibia rather than to the reptiles. The Cæcilias are widely but very sparingly distributed through all the tropical regions; a fact which may, as we have seen, be taken as an indication of the great antiquity of the group, and that it is now verging towards extinction. In the Seychelles Islands there appear to be three species of these singular animals. Cryptopsophis multiplicatus is confined to the islands; Herpele squalostoma is found also in Western India and in Africa; while Hypogeophis rostratus inhabits both West Africa and South America.[[159]] This last is certainly one of the most remarkable cases of the wide and discontinuous distribution of a species; and