610 ZOOLOGY SECT. 



although not actually endemic, since the two former extend 

 into the Palsearctic and Oriental regions, while the Ostrich 

 occurs in Arabia and Syria. Almost equally remarkable are the 

 negative peculiarities of the region, and especially the absence 

 of Bears, Deer, and Oxen, and the extreme paucity of Goats, 

 Sheep, true Pigs (Sus), and Shrews. 



The great island of Madagascar is characterised by the immense 

 number of Lemurs, the absence of Monkeys, and the poverty 

 of its carnivorous and ungulate fauna, the Lions ; Antelopes, &c., 

 of the African continent being all absent. Most of its Mammals 

 are endemic, only three out of twenty-eight (including Bats) being 

 found in Africa. The Birds, also, are quite different from those of 

 the African continent. It shows affinities with America in the 

 presence of a peculiar family of Insectivora (Centetidce), otherwise 

 found only in the West Indies, and of certain Snakes ; and its 

 relationships with India are so marked that it has been proposed 

 to account for them by assuming the former existence of a 

 land connection, in Jurassic and Cretaceous times, extending north- 

 eastward across the Indian Ocean and represented at the present 

 day by the Seychelles and other neighbouring islands. In the 

 opinion of some authorities these peculiarities entitle Madagascar and 

 the adjacent islands to rank as a distinct zoo-geographical region. 



The Oriental Region consists of India, Burmah, Siam, south- 

 eastern China, and certain islands of the East Indian Archipelago, 

 including Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the Philippines. As we 

 have seen, it is separated from the Paleearctic region by the 

 Himalayas, continued on the west by a tract of country following 

 the course of the Indus, and on the east by a region curving at 

 first southwards and finally northwards to Shanghai. The south- 

 eastern boundary is an imaginary line, known as Wallaces line, 

 which passes between the small islands of Bali and Lombok, then 

 through the Straits of Macassar, between Borneo and Celebes, and 

 finally to the east of the Philippines. The islands to the north- 

 west of this line conveniently distinguished as the Indo- Malayan 

 Zsta-d^-belong to the Oriental region, those to the south-east 

 the Austro-Malayan Islands to the Australian region. Curiously 

 enough, the zoological differences between the two groups of 

 islands are more marked between Bali and Lombok, separated 

 by a deep channel of only about twenty miles in width, than 

 between Borneo and Celebes, separated by the whole width of the 

 Straits of Macassar. 



The most characteristic members of the Oriental fauna are the 

 Orang-utan (Simia), the Gibbons (Hylolates and Siamanga), and 

 numerous Lemurs ; the Tiger, which, however, extends into the 

 Palsearctic region, and several Bears and Civets ; the Indian 

 Elephant, the Indian Tapir, three species of Rhinoceros, and the 



