INTRODUCTION. V 



cated. The following subregions may be accepted as convenient 

 and as approximately correct : 



I. Tibetan. The Upper Indus valley (Gilgit, Ladak, &c.) and 

 the higher Himalaya above 12,000 or 14,000 feet. 



II. Himalayan. The southern slopes of the Himalaya, from the 

 base to about the limit of trees. 



III. Indian. India from the base of the Himalaya to Cape 

 Comorin, with the exception of the Malabar coast, but with the 

 addition of Northern Ceylon. 



IV. Malabar or Ceylonese. The Malabar coast and the neigh- 

 bouring hills as far north as the Tapti river, together with Southern 

 Ceylon. 



V. Burmese. All Burma except South Tenasserim, and with the 

 addition of Assam and the intervening countries. 



VI. South Tenasserim. This is the northern extremity of the 

 great Indo-Malayan subregion, comprising the Malay Peninsula 

 and several of the islands. 



Some of these may require further subdivision. Thus the fauna 

 of the North-west Provinces and Punjab differs considerably from 

 that of Southern India, and both areas exhibit zoological distinc- 

 tions from the forest-clad tracts of South-western Bengal. There is 

 also much difference between the animals of Pegu and Arakan, on 

 the one hand, and those of the drier regions of Upper Burma on 

 the other ; and even greater distinctions may be traced betw een 

 those found in the subtropical and those inhabiting the temperate 

 ivgions of the Himalaya. On the other hand, the subtropical 

 Himalayas were united with the Burmese subregion by Wallace, 

 and the two are, perhaps, zoologically more allied to each other 

 than to any other subregion. 



It is well to notice that the Tibetan subregion is Palaearctic, 

 whilst the other live subdivisions are included in the Oriental 

 Region. 



The preceding remarks apply to the 'Fauna of British India' 

 in general ; the following relate to the present volume. The classi- 

 fication of Mammals here adopted was proposed by Professor 

 Flower in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 

 for 1883, pp. 178-186. The arrangement is but slightly modified 

 from that employed by the same author in the last (ninth) edi- 

 tion of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' (Article " Mammalia "). 

 Although this classification is, so far as I am able to judge, the 

 best hitherto published, there are, as will be mentioned in the 



