36o GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



which were published by Pennant in ITGO,-"^ we have had in our 

 own time Mr. Layard, Mr. Holdsworth, and finally Colonel Legge, 

 whose Birds of Ceylon (London : 1878-80) is one of the best books of 

 its class. He has traced in considerable detail the curious dis- 

 tribution of its Avifauna in the four districts into which he divides 

 the island. He recognizes 233 species of Land-birds as certainly 

 belonging to it, 47 of Avhich seem to be peculiar, though there is a 

 possibility that 2 may occur on the mainland. A genus Blaphromis 

 and a subgenus Sturnornis are considered by him to be restricted to 

 the island. 



Two groups of islands in the Bay of Bengal require notice. A 

 very full account of their ornithology was given by Mr. Hume 

 (Stray Feathers, ii. pp. 29-324), Avho visited them in 1873, and 

 furnished a valuable analysis of their Avifauna as he then found it, 

 subsequently publishing some additional information about it 

 (oj). cit. iv. pp. 279-294), which does not seem, however, to alfect 

 materially his earlier conclusions. About one-fourth of the species 

 observed seem to be peculiar ; but he maintains that the character 

 of the whole is essentially " Indian " as distinct alike from " Indo- 

 Burmese " and " Indo-Malayan." About 20 species (letting alone 

 races) appear to be peculiar to the Andaman Islands, and about 12 

 to the Nicobars, while 9 are peculiar to the two groups in common. 

 The Birds of the Andamans need have no peculiar remark, but the 

 Nicobars have a very singular PiGEON, Caloenas nicoharica (of wide 

 range, however), and what is still more worthy of notice, a Mega- 

 PODE, Megapodius nicohariensis, said to be distinct from any species 

 found elsewhere, and certainly the most western member of that 

 curious Family.^ 



The Indo-Malayan Subregion remains for consideration, with a 

 rich Fauna of great interest. On geographical grounds alone we may 

 here easily recognize at least 5 Provinces, formed by the peninsula of 

 Malacca, the great islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, and the 

 Philippine Archipelago. The difficulty is to choose the order in 

 which they should be treated ; but it may be most convenient to 

 begin with the first, though we know little ornithologically about it 

 except in its western half, which the efforts of Mr. Hume ^ (Stray 



^ The 12 plates and 14 pages of letterpress -which then appeared form the 

 basis of the Zoologia hidica Selccta published by J. R. Forster at Halle in 1781, 

 a modified English translation of which, with great additions, is the Indian 

 Zoology of Pennant (London: 1790-91). A Latin version of that by Forster was 

 brought out as Faunula Indica at Halle in 1795. 



2 Mr. "Wallace {Gcogr. Distrib. Anim, ii. p. 342) thinks that it must have 

 been introduced by the Malays, 



3 An older list of the Birds of the Wellesley Province [J.A.S.B. 1870, pp. 

 277-334), by Stoliczka, may be usefully consulted, but the remarks upon it of 

 Lord Walden {Ihis, 1871, pp. 158-177) should also be read. 



