on Dr. Jerdon's 'Birds of India.' 227 



a fine Parrakeet {Palaornis calthrapce), with Athene castanotus, 

 Toccus zingalensis {verus), Phoenicophaus pyrrhocephalus, Cen- 

 tropus chlororhynchm, Megalama flavifrons, Cissa ornata, Eulabes 

 ptilogenys, Temenuchus albofrontatus, Garrulax cinereifrons, Me- 

 ropicus atricapillus, and others, nearly all of which are peculiar 

 to the mountainous part of the island, where also are many spe- 

 cies which occur only on the highest grounds in Ceylon and 

 those also of South India. Again, certain stragglers have been 

 noticed on the island w^hich have not yet been ascertained to 

 occur in the peninsula of India, as Spizaetus nipalensis, Goi- 

 sachius melanolophus, and Tringa albescens* ; and it is likely, as 

 before remarked, that more species will yet prove to inhabit alike 

 the island and the southernmost part of the peninsula, for it is 

 certain that neither the one nor the other has as yet been ade- 

 quately explored. The Cinghalese avifauna is more particularly 

 treated of in the sequel. 



From the base of the Himalaya to the sea there is a much 

 greater amount of uniformity in the fauna of India than exists 

 throughout that region as compared with the southern or Indian 

 flank of the grand Himalayan chain. The sub-Himalayas, as Mr. 

 Hodgson denominates the mountains which do not attain to the 

 altitude of perpetual snow, have a vast number of genera, and 

 even species, in common with the Indo-Chinese subregion, in- 

 creasing in number eastward, which are unknown in India south 

 of the Himalaya ; while in a northei-ly direction there is a con- 

 silierable influx of generic types, and even species, common to 

 West Asia and Europe, and African types come up through 

 South Arabia and Beluchistan to Sindh and Rajputana — the 

 Indian desert territory. To extend the bounds of " India " be- 

 yond the Himalayan snows, or the passes of the Sulimani chain, 

 into Afghanistan, amounts to the confusion of all ideas of an 

 Indian entity ; but the north-east boundary is less marked, and so 

 few known species would need to have been added from the valley 

 of the Brahmaputra and neighbouring hills, additional to those 

 admitted from Sikhim and from Eastern Bengal, that, together 

 with the Ceylon species, they would not have materially increased 



* Vide Swinhoe, in ' Ibis/ 1864, p. 420. Goisachius melanolophus has 

 also been received from Ramri Island fArakan). 



q2 



