chap, xii.] THE ORIENTAL REGION. 323 



Out of the above 38 genera, 8 have so wide a distribution as 

 to give no special geographical indications. Of the remaining 30, 

 whose geographical position we have noted, 14 are Oriental only ; 

 5 have as much right to be considered Oriental as Ethiopian, 

 extending as they do over the greater part of the Oriental 

 region ; 2 (the hyaena and gazelle) show Palaearctic rather than 

 Ethiopian affinity ; 7 are Palcearctic and Oriental but not Ethio- 

 pian ; and only 2 (Cyncelurus and Mellivora) can be considered 

 as especially Ethiopian. We must also give due weight to the 

 fact that we have here Ursidse and Cervidae, two families entirely 

 absent from the Ethiopian region, and we shall then be forced 

 to conclude that the affinities of the Indian peninsula are not 

 only clearly Oriental, but that the Ethiopian element is really 

 present in a far less degree than the Palsearctic. 



Birds. — The naturalists who have adopted the "Ethiopian 

 theory " of the fauna of Hindostan, have always supported their 

 views by an appeal to the class of birds ; maintaining, that not 

 only are almost all the characteristic Himalayan and Malayan 

 genera absent, but that their place is to a great extent supplied 

 by others which are characteristic of the Ethiopian region. After 

 a careful examination of the subject, Mr. Elwes, in a paper read 

 before the Zoological Society (June 1873) came to the conclu- 

 sion, that this view was an erroneous one, founded on the fact 

 that the birds of the plains are the more abundant and more 



