362 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



Philippine Islands tliat this interesting form was first brought to 

 the knowledge of Europeans. 



Much the same has to be said of Borneo, that magnificent 

 island, larger than Great Britain and Ireland. Though its Avi- 

 fauna was carefully investigated by Count T. Salvadori, who pub- 

 lished his results in 1874,^ so much has since been done both 

 abroad and at home ^ that the number of species observed there was 

 raised from 392, of which 325 were Land-birds, to 472, including 

 386 Land-birds, in 1886 by Dr. Vorderman,^ and 570 in 1889 by 

 Mr. A. H. Everett,"^ the two last having alone among the various 

 writers of recent memoirs visited the island. Yet there seem 

 to be only four unquestionable peculiar genera, Fityriasis, a 

 singular form generally referred to the Laniidx, Schwaneria be- 

 longing to Muscicapidge, Heterococcyx to Cuculidx, and Lobiophasis to 

 Fhasianidse.^ A species of Megapode, M. lowi, is said to be 

 peculiar to Borneo and the adjacent island of Labuan. On 

 the whole the character of the Avifauna is much what would be 

 expected from its geographical position, but a resemblance to that 

 of Malacca and Sumatra preponderates, though to that of Java 

 there is considerable affinity, yet a remarkable feature of Borneo 

 is presented by the number of species of Fittidse, a Family of wide 

 range throughout the Old World, but therein exhibiting its 

 maximum, and the comparatively little-known island of Banca, 

 lying between Borneo and Sumatra produces 2 species of the 

 same Family, one representing a form which inhabits the whole 

 Subregion and extends to China and Siam, the other allied to 

 2 species, the first ranging from Nepal to Malacca, and the second 

 inhabiting the Philippines, Borneo, and Sumatra.^ 



Sumatra must be considered next, and perhaps it ought to have 



^ Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, v. pp. 1-430. 



^ It is perhaps needless here to specify all the papers on this subject. Dr. 

 Sharpe has communicated more than a dozen to The Ibis and Zoological Pro- 

 ceedings, beginning with the year 1876 ; Herr von Pelzeln three to the publica- 

 tion of the Zoologico-botanical Society of Vienna, in which also appeared in 

 1883 an excellent list by Prof. W. Blasius ; while in conjunction with Herr 

 Nehrkorn and the late Dr. Kutter others will be found in the Journal filr 

 Ornithologie and Yearbook of the Natural History Society of Brunswick ; and 

 in that of the similar Society of Bremen for 1876, 1877, and 1878 Dr. Briigge- 

 mann has published three more. 



^ Natuurhundig Tijdschrift von Nederlandsch- Indie. Deel xlvi. Aflev. 3. 

 This is a mere list of names : for a more critical catalogue see that of Prof. 

 Blasius. 



* "A List of the Birds of the Bornean Group of Islands," Joum. R. Asiat. 

 Soc. Straits Branch, No. 20, pp. 91-212, and maj) (1889). 



^ A reputed iifth, Anais, referred to Artamidse, is suspected to be founded on 

 a manufactured specimen ! 



^ On this point compare Mr. Hume's remark {Stray Feathers, ii. p. 475). 



