360 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
which were published by Pennant in 1769,1 we have had in our 
own time Mr. Layard, Mr. Holdsworth, and finally Colonel Legge, 
whose Birds of Ceylon (London: 1878-80) is one of the best books of 
its class). He has traced in considerable detail the curious dis- 
tribution of its Avifauna in the four districts into which he divides 
the island. He recognizes 233 species of Land-birds as certainly 
belonging to it, 47 of which seem to be peculiar, though there is a 
possibility that 2 may occur on the mainland. A genus Elaphrornis 
and a subgenus Sturnornis are considered by him to be restricted to 
the island. 
Two groups of islands in the Bay of Bengal require notice. <A 
very full account of their ornithology was given by Mr. Hume 
(Stray Feathers, ii. pp. 29-324), who visited them in 1873, and 
furnished a valuable analysis of their Avifauna as he then found it, 
subsequently publishing some additional information about it 
(op. cit. iv. pp. 279-294), which does not seem, however, to affect 
materially his earlier conclusions. About one-fourth of the species 
observed seem to be peculiar; but he maintains that the character 
of the whole is essentially “Indian” as distinct alike from ‘“ Indo- 
Burmese ” and “ Indo-Malayan.” About 20 species (letting alone 
races) appear to be peculiar to the Andaman Islands, and about 12 
to the Nicobars, while 9 are peculiar to the two groups in common. 
The Birds of the Andamans need have no peculiar remark, but the 
Nicobars have a very singular PIGEON, Calanas nicobarica (of wide 
range, however), and what is still more worthy of notice, a MEGA- 
PODE, MJegapodius nicobariensis, said to be distinct from any species 
found elsewhere, and certainly the most western member of that 
curious Family.” 
The Indo-Malayan Subregion remains for consideration, with a 
rich Fauna of great interest. On geographical grounds alone we may 
here easily recognize at least 5 Provinces, formed by the peninsula of 
Malacca, the great islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, and the 
Philippine Archipelago. The difficulty is to choose the order in 
which they should be treated ; but it may be most conveniént to 
begin with the first, though we know little ornithologically about it 
except in its western half, which the efforts of Mr. Hume? (Stray 
1 The 12 plates and 14 pages of letterpress which then appeared form the 
basis of the Zoologia Indica Selecta published by J. R. Forster at Halle in 1781, 
a modified English translation of which, with great additions, is the Jndian 
Zoology of Pennant (London: 1790-91). A Latin version of that by Forster was 
brought out as Faunula Indica at Halle in 1795. 
* Mr. Wallace (Geogr. Distrib. Anim. ii. p. 342) thinks that it must have 
been introduced by the Malays. 
3 An older list of the Birds of the Wellesley Province (J.4.S.B. 1870, pp. 
277-334), by Stoliczka, may be usefully consulted, but the remarks upon it of 
Lord Walden (Zbis, 1871, pp. 158-177) should also be read, 
