CHAP. IV. ] - ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS. 75 
naturally associated with any other region as Madagascar can 
be with the Ethiopian. It is therefore the better and more 
natural course to keep it as a sub-region; the peculiarities it 
exhibits being of exactly the same kind as those presented by 
the Antilles, by New Zealand, and even by Celebes and Ceylon, 
but in a much greater degree. 
Oriental Region—On account of the numerous objections 
that have been made to naming a region from the least charac- 
teristic portion of it, and not thinking “ Malayan,” proposed by 
Mr. Blanford, a good term, (as it has a very circumscribed and 
definite meaning, and especially because the “Malay” archi- 
pelago is half of it in the Australian region,) I propose to use 
the word “ Oriental ” instead of “ Indian,” as being geographically 
applicable to the whole of the countries included in the region 
and to very few beyond it; as being euphonious, and as being 
free from all confusion with terms already used in zoological 
geography. I trust therefore that it may meet with general 
acceptance. 
This small, compact, but rich and varied region, consists of 
all India and China from the limits of the Palearctic region ; 
all the Malay peninsula and islands as far east as Java and 
Baly, Borneo and the Philippine Islands; and Formosa. It is 
positively characterized by possessing 12 peculiar families of 
vertebrata ; by 55.genera of land mammalia, and 165 genera 
of land birds, altogether confined to it; these peculiar genera 
forming in each case about one half of the total number it 
possesses. 
Sub-divisions of the Oriental region—First we have the 
Indian sub-region, consisting of Central India from the foot of 
the Himalayas in the west, and south of the Ganges to the 
east, as far as a line drawn from Goa curving south and up to 
the Kistna river; this is the portion which has most affinity 
with Africa. 
The second, or Ceylonese sub-region, consists of the southern 
extremity of India with Ceylon; this is a mountainous forest 
region, and possesses several peculiar forms as well as some 
Malayan types not found in the first sub-region. 
