434 REMARKS ON THE GENUS IORA. 



The Marquis of Tweeddale asserts that " the problem is a 

 much deeper one than whether I. zeylonica and /. tiphia are 

 to stand in our lists as titles representing one species or two dis- 

 tinct species, &c"; but, as a matter of fact, the problem, such as 

 it is, lies entirely on the surface, and is merely one of nomencla- 

 ture, which, as Professor Alfred Newton recently remarked to 

 me, bears the same relation to real natural history that rat hunt- 

 ing does to real sport. 



The facts admit of no doubt : the question merely is, whether 

 in face of these we shall, as a matter of classification, accept 

 three or one species. 



The question is any thing but a deep one. All living forms 

 are subject to a greater or less amount of modification under 

 the influence of diversified physical surroundings. In some 

 cases, whether owing to the greater original susceptibility of the 

 type, or to the greater activity of the modifying causes, or to 

 the greater lapse of time during which the form in question has 

 been exposed to these modifying influences, the changes result- 

 ing are marked and constant within a determinable area. In 

 other cases the changes are insignificant and only exhibited, 

 even within the area where they are most noteworthy to a 

 variable extent, and in some only of the individual local repre- 

 sentatives of the form. 



Naturalists, as a rule, would agree to designate as species, the 

 varieties that have arisen in the first class of cases, while they 

 would equally refuse specific rank to those in the second. 



But of all things being ever in a state of change and pro- 

 gress, we meet of course with numberless instances in which 

 the degree of modification attained cannot be, with equal cer- 

 tainty of a general consensus, either acknowledged as of specific 

 value or ignored — cases in which some naturalists would, and 

 some would not, admit that the extent of modification attained, 

 and the degree of constancy with which it was exhibited, were 

 sufficient to justify the award or maintenance of a distinct 

 specific appellation. 



The present is just one of these doubtful cases ; the matter 

 for decision can scarcely be termed a problem at all. It is a mere 

 matter of opinion whether, under the circumstances, we are justifi- 

 ed in retaining several specific titles for the various races, or 

 whether we should unite all under one. 



How stands the case. 



After a most careful and laborious examination of the enor- 

 mous series reviewed in the Appendix, I am of opinion that, 

 broadly speaking, the females of all the races from Java through 

 Borneo, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsular, Tenasserim, Burmah 

 to Assam, and thence through Bengal, the N. W. Provinces and 



