KEPTILES OVER THE INDIAN CONTINENT. ix 



Himalayas*, and by the disappearance of such species as are abundant in Bengal ; this 

 change commences to be very marked from an altitude of 4000 feet above the level of the 

 sea. It is remarkable that the Nilgherries do not show any traces of a fauna similar to that 

 of the corresponding altitude in the Himalayas, although rising to 8000 feet. On the other 

 hand, the reptiles of the Khasya Hills show such a degree of identity with those of the 

 Himalayas that they must be referred to the same fauna. Probably High Assam also 

 belongs to it, but we know too little of this country to draw any definite conclusion. In 

 Tibet the Himalayan fauna is mixed with that of Temperate Asia, Bufo vulgaris, B. calamita, 

 and Phrynoce])halus caudivolmdus being apparently of not uncommon occurrence ; in the 

 Himalayas proper a representative of the Central-Asiatic genus Halys is found, and, most 

 singularly, in Khasya a Pseudopus. 



We are obliged to leave the vast extent of the central parts of Eastern India as having 

 been scarcely touched by collectors, and to return from the alpine pro^^ince of India to 

 the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bengal, and to follow it round the Malayan Peninsula to 

 Siam. This belt of land is well explored, and distinguished by a Reptilian fauna which 

 assumes more and more the Archipelagic character the nearer we approach to the Malayan 

 Peninsula, where more than one-half of the reptiles are species found also in the islands of 

 the Archipelago. I will first mention the most remarkable of the species peculiar to this 

 province. The Tortoises are numerous : Testudo elongata extends from Arakair into Siam, 

 Manouria from Arakan to the Malayan Peninsula; in Tenasserim appear Cyclemiis oldhami. 

 Emys oceUata, Emys crassicollis, extending more or less southwards or eastwards ; in Siam 

 Geoemyda grandis, Emys macrocephala. Not less characteristic are the Saurians and Ophi- 

 dians: Crocodilus siamensis, Acanthosaura, Bilophyms, Physignathus, Liolepis, Herpeton. 

 Hipistes, Xenelaphis, &c., whilst the Batrachians are almost identical with those of the other 

 provinces and of the Archipelago. Quite isolated is the occurrence of a tailed Batrachian 

 [Plethodon) in this province. As regards the Archipelagic types, we first meet them well 

 represented in Tenasserim, where, among others, Cuora amboinensis, Geoemyda sjnnosa, Gonyo- 

 soma owycephalum, Bufo asper occur ; there also is the northern limit of Draco. Their 

 number is considerably increased in the southern parts of Siam by the addition of species of 

 Bronchocela, Calamaria, XenopeUis, Homalopsis, Calloselasma, Oxyglossus, until in the 

 Malayan Peninsula they actually outnumber the continental types. 



Laos and the central and northern parts of Cochinchina are almost unknown, the little 

 that we do know being due to the labours of Mouhot, who perished before he had well com- 

 menced to reap the rich harvest before him. A few species had been described by Cuvier. 

 It would appear that the fauna stands in the same relation to that of the preceding province 

 as the fauna of the Deccan to that of Southern India, but it would be too hazardous to draw- 

 any conclusion from so small a collection of facts. 



From China a great number of collections have been imported for many years, and we can 

 hardly look forward to very numerous additions to our list of species, except perhaps from the 

 western and south-western provinces ; but our knowledge of the geographical range of most 

 of the species known is very defective, " China " having been considered sufficient information 

 as to their habitat. Moreover the Chinese carry on a brisk trade in natural-history objects 

 in their seaports, mixing not only collections from the different parts of the empii-e, but also 



* See a paper in the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 148. 



