126 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



readers) admits, together with other particulars to which I shall 

 have to refer further on : — 



In classifying the species not peculiar to the islands, as I 

 have attempted to do in the last five columns, it has been 

 impossible without many further sub-divisions to be entirely 

 accurate. Thus, in the last column of all, I have been obliged to 

 enter Lanius lucionensis and Goisakius melanolophw* , though both 

 have occurred in Ceylon, and again Onyclioprion anosthcetus 

 and Phaeton Jlavirostris, though these are rather African than 

 Archipelagian. Again, under " India generally,'"' I have had to 

 include Cypselus acuticauda, although properly it should have had 

 a sub-division to itself as occurring, so far as is yet known, only 

 in the Himalayas. Still on the whole, although absolute accuracy 

 is impossible without vastly multiplying the sub-divisions, I 

 believe that the figures above given will afford a tolerably correct 

 general idea of the geographical relations of the Avifauna. 



Scrutinizing these figures the first thing that strikes one is 

 theextreme paucity of Rasorial birds. No Pea-fowl, no Pheasants, 

 no Jungle-fowl, no Spur-fowl, no Partridges of any of the many 

 natural genera into which these divide, no true Quail, only one 

 Megapod, peculiar to the islands, and one little Turnix, which 

 even if not entitled to specific separation (though I suspect it will 

 prove so) is, at any rate, a very distinctly differentiated race. 



