18/3.] DISTRIBUTION OF ASIATIC BIRDS. (J63 



la the Nicobars, not more than about 30 land-birds are yet 

 known, among which Calcenas nicobarica and Megapodius nico- 

 banensis are most remarkable. Neither of these birds is known 

 to inhabit any other island in the Indo-Malay region, Megapodius 

 being quite of an Austro-Malay type. 



The birds of Nicobar are much more Malayan than those of 

 Andaman, only about one quarter being common to India, while 

 nearly half are peculiar *. 



East Tibet. 



The researches of that enthusiastic naturalist and traveller the 

 Abbe Armand David have recently added enormously to our know- 

 ledge of Chinese zoology. In no locality has he discovered so many 

 new, curious, and interesting birds and mammals as in Moupin a 

 district which he tells me is on the borders of Tibet and Szechuen, 

 and, if I understood him rightly, some distance north-west of 

 la-tsien-lo, where a missionary station has been established for 

 many years. During eight months that he collected in this neigh- 

 bourhood he obtained about 40 new species of birds, and a number of 

 new mammalia, which include some of the most anomalous and 

 interesting forms in the whole of Asia. Among them may be cited 

 Ailuropus melanoleucos, M.-Edw., Arctomjx obscurus, M.-Edw., 

 Rhinopithecus roxellana, M.-Edw., Eluphodus cephalopus, M.- 

 Edw. ; but though, as in other cases, the mammalia fully bear out 

 the conclusions I have formed from a study of the birds, I do not 

 intend to say more about them, except that I believe such an inter- 

 esting and novel collection was never previously obtained in so 

 short a time. 



With regard to the physical features of Moupin, we have far less 

 information than would be desirable ; but from what Pere David told 

 me, and from what Mr. Cooper says of the country he passed through 

 to the south f, I imagine that it must strongly resemble the interior 

 valleys of the eastern Himalaya. Rhododendrons, bamboos, and 

 conifers are marked features in the scenery; and in consequence 

 almost all the birds which in Sikim are most characteristic of those 

 types of vegetation are either present or represented by nearly allied 

 species. 



The similarity between the faunas of Moupin and Sikim is most 

 remarkable, and, in connexion with Mr. Swiuhoe's recent discoveries 

 in the hills of China, explains what would have otherwise been very 



* A recent paper by Mr. Hume in 'Stray Feathers,' pt. v., on additional 

 species ot birds from the Andamans, adds a considerable number to Mr. Ball's 

 list. Among the six new species described one is most remarkable, viz. Bhi/ti- 

 ceros narcondami. This Hornbill, which appears to be a dwarf form of Bhyti- 

 ceros ruficolhs, has only been found on the small island of Narcondam ; while 

 the family to which it belongs is unrepresented in any of the other islands ; it 

 is the only Asiatic Hornbill peculiar to one island, and almost the only one 

 which has not a very considerable range. 



Most of the other birds mentioned by Mr. Hume are local forms of well- 

 known species, or migrants of very wide range. 



t Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, London, 1871. 



