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MALAY PANGOLIX. 



CHAPTER VI 



The Malay Province 



Burma and the Malay countries form a part of the great Oriental region, but may 

 be conveniently considered as a province by themselves. This province includes the 

 Assam and Sylhet districts of north-eastern India, Burma, a considerable portion 

 of China, and all of the Asiatic continent lying to the. south and south-east of 

 this, as well as the islands as far as, and inclusive of, the Philippines, the Moluccas, 

 and Celebes. The fauna of Celebes and the Moluccas presents, it is true, a certain 

 similarity with that of Australia and New Guinea, and for a long time all four 

 areas were included in the same zoogeographical realm. Of late years, however, 

 naturalists have realised that the animals of Celebes and the Moluccas have greater 

 affinities with those of the Malay countries than with those of Australasia. It 

 should be added that the Andamans, as well as the islands of Hainan and Formosa, 

 are included in the Malay province. 



As might be expected from the luxuriant forests which clothe the greater part 

 of this vast tract, and the slight difference between the wet winter and the still 

 rainier summer, the fauna of the Malay province is decidedly of a more Oriental 

 type than is the case with that of India itself, where a large admixture of forms 

 characteristic of south-western Asia is met with. 



Among the mammals of the Malay tract the number of kinds of 

 monkeys, especially langurs, forms a predominant feature in the 

 fauna. In Aracan, Pegu, and northern Tenasserim this group is represented by 

 Phayre's langur (Semnopithecus phayrei). In this species the females measure 

 about 18h inches to the root of the tail, while the tail itself is some 21 inches more. 

 The males somewhat exceed their partners in size. The most characteristic feature 

 of this langur is the presence of a peaked longitudinal crest on the crown of the 

 head. The general colour is dark ashy brown, darker on the head and limbs than 

 elsewhere, the root of the tail being whitish and the tip dark. A silvery gloss is 



Langurs. 



1 60 



