NOTES ON THE LIST OP THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 177 



are collectively designated '^ India beyond the Ganges/' or 

 " Transgang^etic India ;" and in German maps the countries east 

 of the Bay of Bengal appear as " Vorderindien." Hence, 

 when Dr. Sclater distinguished the various zoological regions of 

 the earth's surface, he applied the term " Indian region'' to all 

 South-Eastern Asia, with the islands as far as " Wallace's Line." 

 To this some years ago I objected that India Proper, the Hin- 

 dostan of English maps, though not of natives of India, has a 

 fauna and flora differing in most important particulars from 

 those found in other parts of the so-called Indian region, 

 and having, in some respects, a close connection with*' the 

 animals and plants found in Africa ; and that, consequently, 

 a false impression of the fauna of India was conveyed by 

 applying the name to the whole region. I pointed out that 

 very erroneous ideas as to the fauna of India Proper are wide- 

 ly prevalent in consequence of European naturalists not ap- 

 preciating the distinction between the animals found to the 

 west, and those occurring to the east of the Bay of Bengal, and 

 I urged that the term India should be restricted to the °land to 

 which it was originally applied, the peninsula inhabited by 

 tlie Hindoos. 



I believe that it is right to insist upon this restriction of the 

 term India in works on Natural History, because there is no 

 other word that can be used. Hindostan/as already remarked, 

 although commonly employed in England, has a different sig- 

 nification in India. I would restrict the term India rigidly to 

 the countries west of a meridian passing through the northern 

 extremity of the Bay of Bengal, and call such lists, as that 

 given in Stray Feathers, " List of the Birds of British India 

 and its Dependencies," if, as I believe, that fairly comprises the 

 region from which the species named are derived. 



The matter may seem trivial, but really it is not so. The 

 question of geographical distribution is one of the most im- 

 portant at the present day in the whole range of biological 

 science. It is almost impossible for Anglo-Indians to conceive 

 the ignorance that exist amongst a large proportion of European 

 naturalists on the subject, and the only way to reform is a clear 

 definition of geographical names. 



The next point to which I would call attention is the number- 

 ing of the list. I am doubtless a heretic, but still heretics are 

 useful in their way, if only to shew the wide gulph between 

 themselves and orthodox believers, and I do not believe that 

 the numbers are of the least use to Indian ornithologists 

 generally. Give a fresh series to the list, and if those old 

 numbers of Jerdon^s are so important, that Indian ornithology 

 cannot progress without them in some form or other, insert thein 



