294 THE ORIENTAL REGION. [CHAP. 



in favour of such a line of communication. This feature, together 

 with certain marked differences between the mammals of the two 

 areas, appears to afford a conclusive argument that these countries 

 have never been much more closely connected than they are at 

 present. Had any more extensive connection existed, we should 

 surely expect to find antelopes, gazelles, and perhaps asses, in the 

 more open districts of upper Burma ; while the Bay of Bengal 

 would scarcely have formed such a sharp line limiting the eastward 

 range of wolves, foxes, hyaenas, and the other mammals mentioned 

 in the list on page 289, as it actually does. That list is confined 

 to existing types, but if fossil forms had been included, Hippo- 

 potamus might have been added, since the extinct Oriental 

 representatives of that genus do not range further east than Burma 

 (whither they evidently migrated down the river-valleys from 

 northern India), no species being known from the Tertiaries of 

 China, Japan, or the Malayan islands. These circumstances, 

 together with the depth of the sea in the Bay of Bengal, seem to 

 disprove the suggestion of Dr Wallace 1 that a continuous tract of 

 land formerly connected Borneo and the rest of Malaysia with 

 the central peak of Ceylon, and extended eastwards to Hainan. 

 Within the limits of the present volume it would be quite 

 impossible to give a detailed description of the 

 SuWegion mammalian faunas of the Malay Peninsula and 

 Islands ; and I have accordingly selected that of 

 the Bornean group, as an example of what may be called the 

 typical Malayan sub-region, as distinct from Java, which differs 

 markedly in its fauna from Borneo and Sumatra. The chief 

 reason for selecting Borneo is that its fauna has been carefully 

 worked out by Mr A. H. Everett 2 and Mr C. Hose 3 , from whose 

 papers the following list of mammals (exclusive of bats), with some 

 emendations and additions, has been compiled ; species, like the 

 rat, mouse, and buffalo, which have obviously been introduced, 

 being omitted. Mr Everett includes within the Bornean group 

 the island of Palawan, and states that the group may be defined 

 " by a line which starts from a point immediately to the west of 



1 Op. dt. p. 359. 2 Appendix, No. 14. 



3 Descriptive Account of the Mammals of Borneo, Diss, Norfolk, 1893. 



