SYSTEMATIC INDEX, 



WITH EEMAEKS ON THE DISTEIBUTION OF EEPTILES OVER THE INDIAN CONTINENT. 



The fauna of so immense an area as that of the Indian Continent is much diversified, 

 according to the physical peculiarities of its different districts, and according to their prox- 

 imity to neighbouring regions. Although some of the districts are well enough explored to 

 enable us to give an accurate account of the general character of their fauna, I am afraid 

 that even here, in some special cases, we cannot avoid falling mto errors, owing to the falla- 

 ciousness of our information as to where the specimens were collected. Of other districts 

 the Reptiles are very insufficiently known, and the following remarks will show how much 

 remains to be done. We are also much in want of accurate information whether a species 

 is an inhabitant of the coast or of the interior, of the hills or of the plains, of the jungle 

 or of the prairie. 



I commence the following rapid sketch with the south-western corner, the island of Ceylon 

 included. The leading type in this province is the family of UropeUides, which are found 

 nowhere else, and of which only one or two species extend into the Deccan ; it includes, 

 therefore, Mysore, the Carnatic, Malabar, and Travancore, and is one of the best-explored 

 and best-characterized parts of India. It resembles the segment of a disk, of which Ceylon 

 is the centre. A number of most peculiar forms radiate from this centre ; but whilst some of 

 the radii do not reach beyond the limits of the island, others extend more or less far into 

 the peninsula, and diverging receive between them other types peculiar to northern latitudes. 

 One of the most characteristic features of the Reptilian fauna of Ceylon is the total absence 

 of affinity with Archipelagic types, as far as the Tortoises, Saurians, and Ophidians are con- 

 cerned. There are no Dragons, no Callophides, no Calamarise, whilst a comparison of its 

 Batrachians with those of the Archipelago does not show greater diversity than one of 

 species*. A connexion with the African fauna is indicated by the presence of Acontiadid(e, 

 and of a species of Chameleon, which has found its way from the continental portion of 

 this province. It would be a mere repetition of the contents of our systematic index to 

 repeat all the species peculiar to the island; and it must suffice here to mention the genera: 

 Otocri/jitis, Lyriocephalus, Csratophora, Cophotis, Aspidura, Haplocercus, Cercaspis. Charac- 

 teristic forms which extend over to the peninsula, but not beyond, are Testudo elegans, Emys 

 trijuga, Salea, Cipiophis, Hypnale, Dahoia, Cyclophis calamarla, and they are intermixed witli 

 others peculiar to this province {Eublepharis, Sitana, Charasia, Tropidococcyx, Peltopelor, 

 Cacopus), and again with others which are, as it were, strangers in it. Of these latter we 



* With the exception of a frog lately described by Peters as Hoplobatrachus. 



