CHAP. IV.] ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS. 75 



naturally associated with any other region as Madagascar can 

 he with the Ethiopian. It is therefore the better and more 

 natural course to keep it as a sub-region ; the peculiarities it 

 exhibits being of exactly the same kind as those presented by 

 the Antilles, by New Zealand, and even by Celebes and Ceylon, 

 but in a much greater degree. 



Oriental Region. — On account of the numerous objections 

 that have been made to naming a region from the least charac- 

 teristic portion of it, and not thinking " Malayan," proposed by 

 ]Mr. Blanford, a good term, (as it has a very circumscribed and 

 definite meaning, and especially because the " Malay " archi- 

 pelago is half of it in the Australian region,) I propose to use 

 the word " Oriental " instead of " Indian," as being geographically 

 applicable to the whole of the countries included in the region 

 and to very few^ beyond it ; as being euphonious, and as being 

 free from all confusion with terms already used in zoological 

 geography. I trust therefore that it may meet with general 

 acceptance. 



This small, compact, but rich and ^'aried region, consists of 

 all India and China from the limits of the Palsearctic region ; 

 all the Malay peninsula and islands as far east as Java and 

 Baly, Borneo and the Philippine Islands ; and Formosa. It is 

 positively characterized by possessing 12 peculiar families of 

 vertebrata ; by 55 genera of land mammalia, and 165 genera 

 of land birds, altogether confined to it; these peculiar genera 

 forming in each case about one half of the total number it 

 possesses. 



Sub-divisions of the Oriental region. — First we have the 

 Indian sub-region, consisting of Central India from the foot of 

 the Himalayas in the west, and south of the Ganges to the 

 east, as far as a line drawn from Goa curving south and up to 

 the Kistna river; this is the portion which has most affinity 

 with Africa. 



The second, or Ceylonese sub-region, consists of the southern 

 extremity of India with Ceylon ; this is a mountainous forest 

 region, and possesses several peculiar forms as well as some 

 Malayan types not found in the first sub-region. 



