268 THE ORIENTAL REGION. [CHAP. 



with. Wart-hogs (Phacochcerus), aard-varks (Orycteropus\ hyraces 

 (Procaviid(B\ and jumping-shrews (Macroscelididce) are among 

 some of the more characteristic Ethiopian animals which are 

 wanting in the Oriental region at the present day, and have not 

 hitherto been obtained there in a fossil state. Giraffes, a number 

 of genera of antelopes, and hippopotami, are equally conspicuous 

 by their absence, although this, as we have seen, is but a com- 

 paratively recent feature of the region, since most of these forms 

 are represented in the Pliocene of India and Burma. A notable 

 feature of the Oriental as distinct from the Ethiopian region is the 

 circumstance that the great majority of its fruit-bats (like those of 

 Madagascar) belong to the typical genus Pteropus, which is 

 wanting in Ethiopia, while the three genera of the family found in 

 the latter area are absent from the present region. Indeed there 

 is a very curious dissimilarity between the flying-mammals of the 

 two areas, Ethiopia possessing the flying-squirrels of the family 

 Anomaluridce, while the Oriental flying-squirrels all belong to the 

 SriuridiE, the genus Pteromys being peculiar to the region. Among 

 the Insectivora, the so-called flying -lemur (Galeopithecus) is a 

 peculiar Oriental type which has no Ethiopian representative. A 

 somewhat similar instance to that of the flying-squirrels is afforded 

 by the tree-shrews (Tupaiid&) of the Oriental region, which are 

 represented in Ethiopia by the jumping-shrews (Macroscelidida). 

 From the Holarctic region, the Oriental is distinctly differentiated 

 by the presence of apes and lemurs and the abundance of 

 monkeys, together with the presence of the groups mentioned 

 above as being now restricted to this and the Ethiopian region, 

 and likewise by the absence of the typical elaphine deer, 

 marmots, susliks, voles, etc., and the scarcity of sheep and true 

 goats, which, indeed, enter the region only in the north-western 

 frontier of India. 



Commencing with the man-like apes of the family Simiidce, we 

 find the Oriental region destitute of chimpanzees and gorillas, 

 whose place is taken by the orangs (Simla] of Borneo and 

 Sumatra, characterised by the reddish, instead of blackish, colora- 

 tion of their hair, and their more wide departure from the human 

 type. Orangs appear, however, to have inhabited northern India 

 during the Pliocene, and as chimpanzees were then also in exist- 



