BIRDS OF THE ORIENTAL REALM. 95 



are tolerably abundant throughout the greater portion of the re- 

 gion. The South American cotingas likewise appear to have 

 their representatives in the large and gaudy broad-bills (Eurylaem- 

 idee). Trogons, scarcely inferior in the beauty of their plumage 

 to their American congeners, are sufficiently abundant in the for- 

 est districts, where, also, we meet with a multitude of the remark- 

 able horn-bills. Contrary to what might have been expected, 

 seeing their abundance in the Australian region (and partially so 

 also in the Ethiopian), and the apparently favourable conditions 

 for their existence here, the parrots are but feebly represented, and 

 belong, with one exception a cockatoo from the Philippine Islands, 

 the only one found within the limits of the region to the family 

 of the ringed - parakeets (PalasornithidjE). Of the gallinaceous 

 birds the pheasants (Phasianidae) are largely represented. This is 

 the home of the jungle-fowl (Gallus), from one of whose species, 

 the G. Bankiva, inhabiting the region from the Himalayas through 

 Central India eastward to the islands of Java and Timor, is in all 

 probability descended the greater portion of our domestic poultry. 

 Distinct species of the jungle-fowl are found in Southern Hindo- 

 stan, Ceylon, and Java, and, possibly, some of the domestic varieties 

 may have been produced as the result of interbreeding between 

 these various forms and the G. Bankiva. The peacock is found 

 throughout a considerable portion of the region, to which it is 

 indigenous, from Ceylon to the Himalayas, and eastward to China; 

 belonging to the same family, and scarcely less resplendent in their 

 plumage, are the argus, impeyan, tragopan, and fire-backed pheas- 

 ants. The remarkable group of Australian birds known as ' ' mound- 

 builders," megapods, or brush - turkeys, constituting the family 

 Megapodidae, which would seem to be closely related to the South 

 American curassows, have two representatives (of the genus Mega- 

 podius), one, possibly introduced, in the Nicobar Islands, and the 

 other in the Philippines and Borneo. 



The reptilian-fauna comprises, among other serpents, the giant 

 python (of the family Pythonidae), the cobra-di-capello (of the 

 family Elapidae, or coral-snakes), and one-half of all the pit-vipers, 

 or members of the family of rattlesnakes (Crotalidse), although 

 the rattlesnake proper is absent ; among lizards, the Varanidae, or 

 water-lizards, to which the monitor belongs, the geckoes, the 

 agamas, or eastern iguanas, the last embracing no less than eighteen 



