356 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
yet seem to be cut off from all communication with their neigh- 
bours. We may indeed account for this on the ground that the 
similarity observed is due to corresponding elevation above the 
sea-level, and that throughout the whole Region the hill-countries 
are as a rule disconnected ; but such an explanation does not make 
the task easier. We find the characteristics of the Himalayan 
Avifauna shewing themselves not only on the highlands of Southern 
India and Ceylon, but far away to the eastward also in Formosa, 
Hainan, and Cochin China, and again repeated in a lesser but still 
perceptible degree to the southward in the mountains of Malacca 
and Sumatra. This being the case, it seems better to follow for 
the primary divisions a scheme set forth by Mr. Elwes (Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1873, pp. 645-682), especially as in the main it has the approval 
of Mr. W. T. Blanford,! whose further subdivisions, so far as they 
go, it would be wise to adopt. In this way we have three Sub- 
regions—the ‘“ Himalo-Chinese,” the “Indian” (proper), and the 
‘¢ Malayan.” ? 
The Himalo-Chinese Subregion, according to this view, includes 
the southern slopes of the Himalayas from their base to the limit 
of the growth of trees; and, beginning with Cashmere, extends 
through Nepal and Bhotan, thence marching with the as_ yet 
undetermined frontier of the Mongolian Province of the Palearctic 
Subregion until it reaches the coast of China. It includes all 
Burma so far as the middle of Tenasserim, and for the rest its 
southern and eastern boundaries are those of the Asiatic con- 
tinent, while to its Chinese portion also belong the islands of 
1 The Fauna of British India. Mammalia. London: 1888. Introduction, 
pp: iv. v. 
2 Here it may be stated that since want of space forbids the enumeration of 
the many publications on the ornithology of the British possessions and pro- 
tectorates in India, it would be still less possible to attempt a summary of the 
results which they produce. No one wishing to study the Avifauna of any 
portion of India can do so successfully without consulting the original records, 
mostly published in that country. The Jowrnal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 
generally quoted as J. A. S. B.), the Calcutta Journal of Natural History, the 
Madras Journal of Literature and Science have each contained many valuable 
papers on Indian ornithology, while Stray Feathers, entirely devoted to that 
subject, and edited by Mr. Allan Hume, is a magazine of which ten volumes and 
a half have appeared since 1873. That gentleman also published in 1873-75 
Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, of which a second and enlarged edition was 
brought out in 1889-90 by Mr. Oates. Jerdon’s Birds of India, the appear- 
ance of which, in 1862-64, gave new life to the study of ornithology in that 
country, by consolidating the scattered work that had been before done, 
is never to be mentioned but with respect, though in many ways it will be 
superseded by the portion, begun by Mr. Oates, of The Fauna of British 
India, mentioned in the preceding note. While mentioning all these, the - 
important contributions to Indian ornithology by Mr. Hodson and Blyth must 
not pass unnoticed. 
