278 Mr. W. T. Blanford on the African 



' Geographical Distribution of Animals/ whilst agreeing in 

 some respects with 'that of the Vertebrata, presents some 

 very singular anomalies. 



Views more or less coinciding with my own have been 

 subsequently expressed by the late Mr. Blyth * and Dr. 

 Stoliczka t, and by Herr A. von Pelzeln | ; but, except by the 

 latter, no details have been given. Mr. Elwes §, on the other 

 hand, whilst adopting my principal divisions, considered that 

 I had overrated the importance of the African element and 

 underrated the general distribution of Malay genera. Mr. 

 Elwes's paper referred solely to the distribution of birds — 

 which had one advantage, that more had been published about 

 the class than about any other, and at least one disadvantage, 

 viz. that birds, being all more or less vagrants and having 

 greater facilities for moving long distances than the vast 

 majority of the members of other classes, are enabled to 

 colonize isolated spots (such as hill-tops) far from their own 

 region. The Indian hill-tops afford a pleasanter climate than 

 the plains, and are much utilized by Anglo-Indians as sana- 

 toria ; consequently their fauna is frequently far better known 

 than that of the plains around them. 



The appearance of Mr. Wallace's great work on geographical 

 distribution will, it may be hoped, form an epoch in the study 

 of this most important and much neglected branch of zoolo- 

 gical science. The subject has never before been treated 

 in an equally thorough manner, and it is difficult to overrate 

 the obligation of all naturalists to the author. I very greatly 

 regret that the pressure of other work has prevented me from 

 hitherto publishing a number of details with reference to the 

 fauna of India, which would, I think, have greatly modified 

 Mr. Wallace's views. With only the facts procurable from 

 museum catalogues and other published works, I know from 

 experience that it is impossible to ascertain correctly the 

 details of distribution ; the numerous errors committed by the 

 older naturalists, by whom the term India was used In the 

 very loosest and vaguest sense, have but rarely been eliminated; 

 and it is constantly the practice In monographs and catalogues 

 to quote species and genera as found in two localities — the old 

 and erroneous one, and the real locality subsequently dis- 

 covered. Moreover, even in works of so high a class and so 



• Nature, 1871, Marcli 30, p. 427 ; Catalogue of Mammals and Birds 

 of Burma, J. A. S. B. 1875, pt. ii. extra number, Introduction, p. xv. 



t J. A. S. B. 1869, pt. ii. p. 202; 1870, pt. ii. p. 280 ; Proc. A. S. B. 

 1871, p. 84. 



X " Afrika-Indien," Verli. k.-k. zool.-bot. Gesellsch. Wien, 1875, p. 33. 



§ P. Z. S. 1873, pp. 652, 669, &c. 



