THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 137 



Malayan, and Archipelagian sub-regions, is most surprising. It 

 is true that Lophospiza, ' Neopus and Baza, though the two 

 former also occur in Southern India, and all straggle somewhat 

 beyond the limits of their province, yet pertain essentially, so far 

 as our empire is concerned, to the Indo- Burmese region, and the 

 same may be said of Hypotriorchis severus ; while H. subbuteo 

 belongs only to the extreme northern and western frontiers 

 of the Indian sub-region, but Tinnunculus, H alias tur, Milvus, 

 JElanus, Pernis and Poliornis are at present so essentially 

 characteristic of, although by no means peculiar to, the Indian 

 sub-region, that one can scarcely accept a tract where these are 

 utterly wanting as having ever formed part of this region. 



When we turn to the nocturnal Raptores, the blanks are 

 equally perplexing, no Stria, Scelostrix or Phodilus, no Syrnium, 

 Ketupa or Athene, only Ninox and Ephialtes. 



Dendrochelidon, Harpactes and Coracias, are three other 

 genera which might well have been looked for, but which are 

 entirely unrepresented. 



Except in Narcondam, (an island belonging like Barren Island 

 to a different series to all the rest), Hombills are entirely 

 wanting. 



The Woodpeckers are represented by only two species, and 

 the golden backed and green Woodpeckers, so characteristic of 

 the Indian region, are wholly unrepresented. 



Most inexplicable of all, Barbets are absolutely missing. 

 Alike in the Indian, Indo-Burmese, and Indo-Malayan regions 

 this family is amongst the most characteristic ; leave the islands, 

 it matters little in what direction you steer your course, and 

 wherever within 1,000 miles you touch land, you at once hit upon 

 Barbets ; nay, one of the first birds you see at Acheen Head is our 

 old Indian friend Xantliolcema hcemacephala ; but not one single 

 Barbet appears to occur in any one of the islands of the 

 Bay of Bengal. 



Sitta, Leucocerca, Cyornis, Chloropsis and Iora, all very charac- 

 teristic of the Indian region, although extending far beyond 

 its limits, are all wanting, and the entire family of the Timalidos 

 does not possess a single representative. No doubt the great body 

 of the species and genera that this family comprises, Mixornis 

 Timalia, Turdinus, Pomatorlwius, Garrulax, Trochalopteron, 

 pertain even more to the Indo-Burmese sub-region than to that 

 of India, and may have spread into the latter from the former, 

 but Malacocercus and Cliatarrliaza are so essentially and universally 

 Indian, that one cannot understand even an outlying section 

 of that region in which no representative of these genera exists. 



