loG 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



[chap. XXVII. 



animal life in tlie tropics. Yet the almost entire absence 

 of Mammalia, and of such wide-spread groups of birds as 

 woodpeckers, thrushes, jays, tits, and pheasants, must 

 convince him that he is in a part of the world which has 

 in reality but little in common with the great Asiatic 

 continent, although an unbroken chain of islands seems to 

 link them to it. 



4 



