iii Iiulin, Ceylon, and Burma. 489 



a distinct relationship with Ethiopiau and Holarctic genera, and with 



the Pliocene Siwalik fauna. This constituent of the Ciagangetic fauna 

 it is proposed to distinguish ly the term Aryan. The other con- 

 stituent is composed of reptiles and batrachians, and may l>e termed 

 the PraA'idian element. The latter is well developed in the south of 

 the Peninsula and especially along the south-west or Malabar Coast, 

 and in Ceylon, Imt it gradually disappears to the northward, its 

 northern limit, so far as is known at present, not extending to the 

 20th parallel of north latitude. It is probable that this is the oldest 

 part of the Cisgangetic fauna, and it may have inhabited the country 

 since India was connected by land with Madagascar and South Africa, 

 across what is now the Indian Ocean, in Mesozoic and early Cenozoic 

 times. The other two elements, the Indo-Malay or Oriental and the 

 Aryan, are probably later immigrants, and its wider diffusion may 

 indicate that the Oriental element has inhabited the Indian Peninsula 

 longer than the Aryan has. There appears some reason for regarding 

 the Oriental portion of the fauna as dating in India from Miocene 

 times and the Aryan from Pliocene, whilst in the Pleistocene epoch 

 the proportion of Aryan to Oriental types of mammals in India, as 

 shown by the fossil faunas of the Nerbudda and the Karnul Caves, 

 was much larger than at the present day. 



There are some other peculiarities of the Indian Peninsular fauna to 

 which attention may be called. One of these is the presence of genera 

 and sometimes of species which are found on both sides of the Bay of 

 Bengal, but not in the Himalayas or Northern India. A good example 

 is afforded by the genus 7'/v"/"/"-S of which one species inhabits Ceylon 

 and India south of about '2'2 N. hit. whilst two others are found in 

 Southern Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula. In Pliocene times, 

 the genus inhabited Northern India. Another instance is the lizard 

 JJiilf/f/s ijiiftvtux found in Burma and Arrakan, and also in South 

 Canara on the "NVest Coast of India. Examples amongst reptiles are 

 rather numerous. Moreover, whilst there are numerous alliances 

 between the animals of Peninsular India and those of Africa, there are 

 also some curious connections between India and Tropical America, but 

 these are chiefly amongst invertebrates. Some, however, are found in 

 reptiles. It is probable that such Indo-Aiuerican connection.- are 

 vestiges of older life than the Indo-African. They are of course, 

 generally speaking, instances of animal groups once more widely 

 distributed, but now only preserved in a few favourable tropii-a] 

 localities. 



IV. The forest area of the Himalayas belongs to the same sub-region 

 as Assam, Burma (except South Tenasserim), Southern China, Toinjuin, 

 Siam, and Cambodia, and to this sub-region the term Transgangetic 

 may be applied. It is distinguished from the Cisgangetic sub-region 

 by the absence of the animals already specified as characteristic of that 



