654 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL [June 17, 



fragmentary condition over the greater part of the peninsula of 

 India. 



Mr. Blanford's remarks on this subject, in the ' Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal,' 1871, p. 216, are very interesting, and 

 lead us to hope that this gentleman, whose great knowledge of the 

 physical geography, geology, and zoology of India fits him so well 

 for the task, will give us sooner or later a more detailed account 

 of the minor divisions of the Indian province, which he has already 

 sketched out in the same journal, (vide P. A. S. B. 18/0, p. 335). 



Mr. Blanford, in the paper I have referred to (J. A. S. B. 1870, 

 p. 335), divides India alone into four provinces, and one of these 

 again into four subprovinces. Though I agree with him in the 

 main, I think that such minute divisions tend, in the present state 

 of our knowledge, to confuse those who have no personal knowledge 

 of the country ; and I shall therefore only notice those of his 

 divisions which are marked by such remarkable forms or abundance 

 of peculiar species that they will be understood by those whose ac- 

 quaintance with the subject is only general. 



Himalayan or Himalo-Chinese Subregion. 



This subregion, according to my view, includes all the middle 

 region of the Himalaya from 3000 or 4000 up to 100U0-12000 

 feet, and extends from Cashmere, right through Nepal, Bhotan, 

 the hill-ranges surrounding the valley of Asam, and all the 

 unknown hilly region, thence to the coast of China south of about 

 latitude 30° N., including the islands of Formosa and Hainan, and 

 probably the whole of Siam, Cochin China, and Anam, though of 

 this country we know next to nothing. It also includes all the 

 hilly region of Burmah and the Tennasserim mountains, merging 

 into the Malayan subregion about lat. 12° N. Its northern limit is 

 of course very indefinite, as the country north and east of Assam 

 is absolutely unknown ; but it is probable that it includes a great 

 part of East Thibet and the head-waters of the rivers which unite 

 near Sudya to form the Bramaputra. It is characterized by an 

 abundance of species and a great variety of peculiar forms, many of 

 which, from their rarity in collections and from our ignorance of 

 their osteology, are not as yet classified with any certainty. 



In its western part it is merely a narrow border land, in which the 

 inhabitants of two very different faunas lying north and south of it 

 mingle, and, being inhabited at some seasons of the year by represen- 

 tatives of nearly all the principal Indian and Palaearctic genera, pro- 

 bably includes some of the richest localities in the whole world. 



We will now examine the different parts of the subregion, beginning 

 from its western limit. 



Kashmir. 



The birds of Cashmere are now pretty well known ; but no connected 

 account of them has been published, except that given by Adams in 

 the Society's 'Proceedings' for 1859. It gives a good idea of the orni- 

 thology of the country ; and having struck out some species which do 

 not properly belong to it, and added a good many which have been since 



