THE ORIENTAL REGION. 319 



are 3 peculiar families of snakes and 1 of lizards, as 

 well as 1 of toads and 3 of fresh-water fishes. 



The Oriental Region. 



The Oriental region comprises all tropical Asia east 

 of the Indus, with the Malay Islands as far as Java, 

 Borneo, and the Philippines. In its actual land-area it 

 is the smallest region except the Australian ; but if we 

 take into account the wide extent of shallow sea con- 

 necting Indo-China with the Malay Islands, and which 

 has, doubtless, at no distant epoch, formed an extension 

 of the Asiatic Continent, it will not be much smaller 

 than the Ethiopian region. Here we find all the 

 conditions favourable to the development of a rich 

 and varied fauna. The land is broken up into great 

 peninsulas and extensive islands ; lofty mountains and 

 large rivers everywhere intersect it ; while along its 

 northern boundary stretches the highest mountain- 

 range upon the globe. Much of this region lies within 

 the equatorial belt, where the equability of temperature 

 and abundance of moisture produce a tropical vegetation 

 of unsurpassed luxuriance. We find here, as might be 

 expected, that the variety and beauty of the birds and 

 insects is somewhat greater than in the Ethiopian 

 region ; although, as regards mammalia, the latter is 

 the most prolific, both in genera, species, and indi- 

 viduals. 



The families of Mammalia actually peculiar to this 

 region are few in number, and of limited extent. 

 They are, the Galeopithecidae, or flying lemurs ; the 

 Tarsiidee, consisting of the curious little tarsier, allied 



