CHAP. XTi.] THE ORIENTAL REGION. 323 



22. Cerviis ... Oriental and Paloearctic ; family not Ethiopian. 



23. Cervulus ... Oriental; family not Ethiopian. 



24. Bibos ... ... Pala?arctic and Oriental. 



25. Portax . . . Oriental. 



2f). Gazella ... Pala;arctio and Ethiopian. 



27. Antilope ... Oriental. 



28. Tetraceros ... Oriental. 



29. Elephas ... Oriental species. 



30. Mus ... ... (/osmopolite nearly. 



31. Platacanthoniys Oriental. 



32. Meriones ... Very wide range. 



33. Spalaconiys ... Oriental. 



34. Sciurus ... Almost Co.smopolite. 



35. Pteromys ... Palasarctic and Oriental to Chiu.i and ^lalaya. 



36. Hj'strix ... Wide range 



37. Lepus ... ... Wide range. 



38. Manis Ethiopian and Oriental to Malaya. 



Out of the above 38 genera, 8 liave so wide a distribution as 

 to give no special geographical indications. Of the remaining 30, 

 whose geographical position we have noted, 14 are Oriental only ; 

 5 have as much right to be considered Oriental as Ethiopian, 

 extending as they do over the greater part of the Oriental 

 region ; 2 (the hyiena and gazelle) show Pahearctic rather than 

 Ethiopian atiinity ; 7 are Pala3arctic and Oriental but not Ethio- 

 pian ; and only 2 {Cynmlunts and Mellivora) can be considered 

 as especially Ethiopian. We must also give due weight to the 

 fact that we have here Ursidse and Cervidas, two families entirely 

 absent from the Ethiopian region, and we shall then be forced 

 to conclude that the affinities of the Indian peninsula are not 

 only clearly Oriental, but that the Ethiopian element is really 

 present in a far less degree than the Palajarctic. 



Binh. — The naturalists who have adopted the " Ethiu])ian 

 tlieory " of the fauna of Hindostan, have always supported their 

 views by an appeal to the class of birds ; maintaining, that not 

 only are almost all the characteristic Himalayan and ]\Ialayan 

 genera absent, but that their place is to a great extent supplied 

 by others which are characteristic of the Ethiopian region. After 

 a careful examination of the subject, ]\Ir. Eiwes, in a paper read 

 before the Zoological Society (June 1873) came to the conclu- 

 sion, that this view was an erroneous one, founded on the fact 

 that the birds of the plains are the more abundant and more 



Y 2 



