358 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
opportunities of becoming acquainted with the interior of the 
country. In finally publishing the observations which a residence 
of twelve years in central and western China enabled him to make, 
he had the advantage of M. Oustalet’s co-operation, and their joint 
work, Les Oiseau de la Chine (Paris: 1877), with its many illustra- 
tions, is naturally a most valuable addition to our knowledge of 
the subject. By these gentlemen the number of species observed 
in China is raised to 807, of which 158 are said to be found in 
Europe, 148 in Palearctic Asia, and 248 in Southern Asia. More 
important than this is the statement that 249 species are peculiar 
to China, which for the occasion is trisected into a Northern with 
92, a Tibetan with 58, and a Southern district with 169 peculiar 
species. It seems as if these last only would come within our 
Indian Region, the rest or most of them belonging truly to the 
Palearctic area ; but unfortunately the authors do not trace their 
geographical boundaries, and indeed, as has been more than once 
hinted in the preceding paragraphs, our existing knowledge seems 
not to admit of this being done. 
The two principal islands off the Chinese coast are happily in a 
different position. In Formosa Swinhoe found 144 species refer- 
able to 102 genera, of which 98 occur in the continental part of 
this Subregion and 70 in the Indo-Malayan, while Hainan has 130 
species belonging to 96 genera, of which 93 are common to the 
Himalo-Chinese Subregion and 86 to the Malayan, thus shewing in 
each case a decided predominance. Formosa has no fewer than 
34, and Hainan 16 species believed to be peculiar, but it is needless 
to say that they are more or less nearly allied to those of the 
mainland. 
The truly Indian Subregion, according to Mr. Blanford’s latest 
determination, consists of the whole Peninsula from the base of 
the Himalayas, and of the island of Ceylon. It contains two 
districts which we may call Provinces—the first, the ‘ Indian,” ? 
excepts the Malabar coast but includes the northern part of Ceylon, 
while the second, called by him “ Malabar or Ceylonese,” takes in 
what is left of both peninsula and island. But he also remarks 
that further subdivision may be required, for the Fauna of what 
are politically called the ‘“ North-Western Provinces” and of the 
Punjab differs considerably from that of Southern India, and both 
areas exhibit zoological distinction from the forest-clad tracts of 
South-western Bengal. Since the publication of Jerdon’s never-to- 
1 It is of course inconvenient having to apply this epithet to a Region, a 
Subregion, and a Province. But that is not the fault of those who regard its 
prior application to the first by Mr. Sclater. Practically the inconvenience is 
not so great as it might seem, for the word being an adjective, requires a 
substantive in apposition, and that should always signify which of the three is - 
meant. 
