THE ORIENTAL REGION 



The Malay countries have tropical rain forests, swamps, and wooded mountains; 

 in India there are also extensive plains and deserts. To the north the region is bounded 

 by high mountains, the Tibetan highlands and the Himalayas, where coniferous forests 

 and the higher treeless zone extending to the snow fields form an outlying subregion of 

 the Holarctic. 



The bird life of tropical southern Asia, and of the islands as far as Java and Bali, is 

 surprisingly like that of Africa. Though there are many endemic genera and species, 

 there is not a single family of birds peculiar to the Oriental Region. To consider it as 

 a separate region is partly a matter of convenience, and partly a recognition of the 

 abundance of certain groups of babbling thrushes, bulbuls, drongos, sunbirds, and spe- 

 cialized gallinaceous birds, which have their headquarters there. For many years it was 

 thought that the broadbill family was Oriental only, but representatives have now 

 been found in Africa. The degrees of resemblance and difference between the Ethio- 

 pian and the Oriental and the African Regions are well shown in the large mammals, 

 many of which are similar, like the elephant, rhinoceroses, and buffaloes, but for the 

 most part represent distinct genera. 



Though the jungles, swamps, and plains of India and the Malay countries are rich 

 in bird life, its close relationship with African bird life indicates that the desert, which 

 now forms a partial barrier between the Oriental and the African Regions, is recent. 

 In the not very distant past, as geologists count time, the forest faunas of India and 

 Africa were probably joined by a continuous band of forest. 



69' 



