4 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
No. 8.—The Malabar tract comprises the Western Ghauts 
and the western coast lands from a little way north of 
Bombay down to Cape Comorin. The average rainfall varies 
from 74 inches at Bombay to 261 at Mahableswar. 
Ceylon is divided into two :— 
No. 9.—The Northern Ceylon tract, comprising north and 
east Ceylon and that part of the south of the Island east of 
Tangalla. The rest of the Island is classed as No. 10, the 
Southern Hill tract. 
Of the Northern tract, he remarks : “ This is, in fact, a part 
of the Carnatic with a higher rainfall and with much more 
forest! The rainfall varies from 35 inches at Mannar to 61 at 
Trincomalee.” 
Of the Southern tract, he says : ‘‘ South-western Ceylon, to 
which, as Legge* has shown, the peculiar fauna of the Island 
is largely restricted, must be regarded as part of the Malabar 
Coast.” 
The difference between the fauna of these divisions and sub- 
divisions is more marked in some cases than in others; that is 
to say, the divisions are of varying zoological importance. 
As Blanford says, the Indo-Gangetic plain forms a geo- 
logical boundary of the highest importance.t Many geologists 
believed that this great plain was until quite recent times 
covered by part of a large sea, which cut off South India from 
the country north of the Himalayas, as the Mediterranean now 
cuts off North Africa from Europe ; and that in those days 
the Himalayas were represented by a chain of islands of quite 
moderate altitude. 
This was Wallace’s opinion, but Blanford states that there 
is no geological evidence to show that this former sea ever 
extended eastwards of Delhi. 
Again, the place occupied by Ceylon as a primary division 
is purely local, and not of great account zoologically, as will 
be seen from the remarks introducing the subdivision into 
* Legge : ‘* History of Birds of Ceylon,” Introduction, p. xvii., and 
map. 
+ Blanford, loc. cit., p. 343. 
{ “Manual of Geology of India,” Introduction, p. Ix., and also 
p. 393. 
