Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/779

INDIAN REGION.] BIRDS 61 globe ; and its boundaries, so far as they can be defined, have been already sketched out when treating of the adjoin ing areas. Large as is its extent, and greatly varied as are its physical features, it would feem to have but 2 peculiar families of Birds (Phyllornithidce and Eurylcemidoe) out of upwards of 70 which occur within its limits. There is peculiar difficulty in determining the zoological Subregions - and provinces into which this Region should be separated. While the fauna of some districts, or even larger portions, has been studied so that we possess a knowledge of them almost as full as of any country in the world, Europe and the tracts of other Regions settled by Europeans alone cxccpted, the greater part is not much better known zoolo gically than is the centre of Africa. Yet we cannot treat the Indian Region with the same audacity of ignorance that we did the Ethiopian, drawing our boundaries here and there in a manner which the experience of a few more years will very likely prove to be exceedingly wide of the mark, for our acquaintance with the Region now under con sideration is such as to convince us that throughout its whole extent there are districts, large or small, which have an unmistakable affinity to one another, and yet appear to be cut off from all communication with their neighbours. True it is that we may readily account for this on the ground that the similarity to be observed is due to corre sponding elevation above the sea-hevel, and that through out the whole Region the hill-countries are, as a rule, dis connected ; but such an explanation does not make our task the easier, and we are filled with the consciousness that we cannot map out the Indian Region according to the method we have hitherto followed. We find the character istics of the Himalayan avifauna shewing themselves not only on the highlands of Southern India and Ceylon, but far away to the eastward also, as in Formosa, Hainan, and Cochin China, and again repeated in a lesser but still perceptible degree to the southward in the mountain ranges of Malacca and Sumatra, This then being the case, we think it better to follow in the main the scheme adopted by Mr Elwes, to whose essay on the geographical distribu tion of Asiatic Birds we have before referred (page 754). Right or wrong in his results, he has the merit of having arrived at them, as he tells us, contrary to a certain bias which he had entertained at the beginning of his investiga tions, and these are marked by uncommon care and a diligent study of all the means of information at that time available to him. Mr Elwes would establish three Sub- regions the " Himalayan " " or Himalo-Chinese," the " Indian " (proper), and the " Malayan." (1.) The Himalo-Chinese Subregion, according to his view, includes all the middle slopes of the Himalayan range, from an elevation of about 3000 to 12,000 feet, and, beginning with Cashmere, extends through Xepal, Bhotan, the highlands of Assam, and thence, marching with the as yet undetermined frontier of the Palaearctic Region, to the sea-coast of China. To this Subregion belong the islands of Formosa and Hainan, and it not only includes a great part of China proper, but probably the whole of Cochin China and Siam, with the hill-country of Tennasserim and Burmah, merging into the Malayan Sub- region somewhere about lat. 12 N. In its western part, he observes, it is merely a narrow border-land, in which the members of two very different faunas meet, and, being inhabited during some part of the year by nearly all the principal Palasarctic genera, and those of the proper Indian Subregion, probably includes some of the richest portions of the world. Besides this, as already remarked, its influ ence is felt far to the southward, even in the islands of Ceylon and Sumatra. whole, it seems as though "Indian," having been the distinguishing term first applied to this region, had better be retained. From what has been said above as to the way in which some of the Subregions of the Indian Region are broken up, and this Subregion especially, it is useless to attempt any partitioning of them into true zoological provinces. We can only follow Mr Elwes in taking the various coun tries in succession, and stating what is known of them. Cashmere is the first. Here there seems to be 171 Land- Cashmei birds, referable to 116 genera; of the latter, 34 have a wide range, 32 are characteristic of the Palsearctic Region, 29 of the Indian, and 21 peculiar to or characteristic of the Himalo-Chinese Subregion. There is only 1 species peculiar to the country a very normal Bullfinch (Pyrrhida) belonging to Fringillidoe. Cephalopyrus, an aberrant Tit mouse (Paridce), and once thought to be a peculiar genus, extends eastward so far as Simla, Of the species 70 seem to be peculiar to the Himalayan district, and 30 are common to the Palaearctic Region. Xepal is the next country of which we know enough to Nepal, give any satisfactory account ; and, indeed, thanks to Mr Hodgson s labours in years gone by, our knowledge of its zoology is very tolerably complete, though of late years little has been added to it. Its rich avifauna is said to consist of 553 species of Land-birds, belonging to 294 genera ; of the latter, 62 are of wide range, 30 character istic of the Palaearctic, and 122 of the Indian Region, while 80 are peculiar to, or characteristic of, the Himalaya. Of the species there are 330 peculiar to the Himalayan district, and 60 common to the Palaearctic Region. The small state of Sikkim seems to be richer still. Ex- Bikkim. eluding the Accipitres there are here found 423 species of Land-birds, of which 270 do not occur out of the Himalaya, except as migrants or stragglers. Of these, 63 belong to genera of wide range, 60 more are of Palaearctic distribution, and 154 are nearly peculiar to the Indian Region, while 146 are peculiar to, or characteristic of, the Himalo-Chinese Subregion. Passing to Assam, the hills to the north and east of which, however, are very little known, its ornithic character seems greatly to resemble that of Sikkim ; but we have from its southern boundary a few genera which are not actually found in the Himalaya, such as Anthrejrtes, Turdinus, and Ehytoceros, belonging respectively to Nectar- iniidce, Timeliidce, and Bucerotidce, while we are acquainted with only 16 species which are not found also in Sikkim, and of these one-half are Burmese. Burmah must be taken next, though a district intervenes Burmah of which we are quite ignorant, and this country, its high- and Ten lands especially, requires much more exploration, but the liass valley of the Irrawadi, Aracan, and Pegu are very fairly known. Of 373 species of Land-birds, 97 are common to India, and the rest to the Malay peninsula. 193 more are found in India, and 27 in the peninsula alone, while 46 are peculiar to Burmah or to Burmah and Tennasserim. In Tennasserim, taking it to extend from Martaban to the isthmus of Krau, we have 313 species of Land-birds, 93 being common to India and the rest of the peninsula, 117 more being found in India, and 56 in the peninsula alone, while 47 are peculiar to Tennasserim or to Tennasserim and Burmah. This country is especially rich in species of the peculiarly Indian family Eurylcemidce, possessing a majority of the known forms. Lying in the Bay of Bengal are two remarkable groups Andamai of islands the Andamans and the Nicobars which the and Nice authority we are following would, from the similarity of 1:>ars their avifauna to that of Pegu, include in this Subregion. Lord Walden, however, thinks (Ibis, 1873, p. 297) the former have a greater affinity to the highlands of India south of the Himalaya and west of the Brahmapootra, and Mr Hume (Stray Feathers, ii. p. 136) considers both groups to form an outlying bit of the proper Indian Sub- region on which many foreign intruders have established

III. - 96