172 
b. Species between 8000 and 10,000 feet. 
Hinulia indica. Trachischium fuscum. 
_Barycephalus sykesi. Tropidonotus platyceps. 
*Tiliqua rufescens. Trigonocephalus affinis. 
Tiaris elliotti. Bufo vulgaris. 
* Clothonia johnit. 7 melanostictus. 
Ablabes owenii. 
The upper limit of this zone is marked by the disappearance of a 
Saurian (Tiliqua rufescens), of a Snake (Clothonia johnii), and of 
two Batrachians (Bufo melanostictus and B. vulgaris). Several 
other tropical Snakes reach more or less deeply into this zone, and 
their range may help some day to establish two or three subzones ; 
for the present, however, I will merely suggest the feasibility of sepa- 
rating the upper part (from 8000 to 10,000 feet) from the lower. 
The greater number of the species are peculiar to the Himalaya: 
the tree-lizards of the Tropical zone (Calotes) are here replaced: and 
represented by a distinct species (C. ¢ricarinatus), the other species 
of Saurians being such as live on or below the ground. As for 
Snakes, the absence of Calamaria and Elaps strikes us first, both 
genera being strictly confined to tropical regions. Tree-snakes are 
scarcely represented by Dipsas trigonata and Herpetoreas, which 
do not extend on to 8000 feet. All the others are ground- or 
freshwater-snakes belonging to genera, which, if not confined to 
the Himalayas, are spread over parts of the globe so different, that 
the Amphibio-fauna of this zone is by no means strikingly stamped 
with the character of the temperate regions. Two instances alone * 
remind us of the fact that a great part of the plants and insects of 
this zone are identical with European forms; namely, the occurrence 
of a Snake at 9000 feet, which is nearly allied to, or perhaps really 
identical with, Trigonocephalus halys from the shores of the Cas- 
pian Sea and Tartary, and which has another congener in Trigono- 
* It is a pity that a more exact statement of the locality of the Khasia Blind- 
worm, Dopasia gracilis, has not been preserved; it appears to belong to this 
zone. Dr. Hooker (Him. Journ. ii. p. 301) says that “it belongs to a truly 
American genus,” and appears to have been guided in so saying by the opinion 
of Dr. Gray, who, however, after referring it first to the European Pseudopus, and 
afterwards to the American Ophisurus, has founded a separate genus upon it—Do- 
pasia. The occurrence of a form in Khasia so closely allied to northern genera is 
remarkable enough; but if we separate these three forms generically from one 
another (for which, in my opinion, the differences are not important enough), 
Dopasia has quite as much resemblance to Pseudopus as to Ophisurus; the pala- 
tine teeth in Dopasia forming a very narrow band, whilst this band in Ophisurus 
is broad. Another assertion of Dr. Hooker (J. c.), ‘ that the Sikkim Skink and 
Agama are also American forms,” is not correct. The appellation of ‘“ Sikkim 
Skink ” can be applied with the same right not only to Plestiodon sikkimensis 
(probably referred to by Dr. Hooker), but also to Hinulia indica and Tiligua ru- 
Jescens ; the two latter genera are confined to the East Indies and to Australia, 
and the former is, it is true, represented by some American species, but two or 
three others occur in different parts of the East Indies; so that this genus of 
Skinks can by no means be called a North American form. With regard to the 
“ Sikkim Agama”’ being called an American form, it must be mentioned, that the 
Agamide are a family confined to the Old World. 
