xiv INTRODUCTION. 



shallow strait, is closer to that of South India than to the avifauna of any other part of the 

 peninsula. AVallace, in his great work on the Distribution of Animals, considers the island 

 of Ceylon and the entire south of India as far north as the Deccan as forming a subdivision of 

 the great " Oriental Region." It is, however, in the hills of the two districts, which possess the 

 important element of a similar rainfall, where we find the nearest affinities both as regards birds 

 and mammals ; and this is exemplified by the fact of some of the members of the Brachypodidae 

 and Turdidse (families well represented in both districts) being the same in the Nilghiris and 

 the mountains of Ceylon, while many of the Timaliidae and Turdidse in one region have near 

 allies in the other. For example, Malacocercus (Layardia) rufescens, Pomatorhinus melanurus, 

 Alcippe nigrifrons, Garrulax cinereifrons, Myiophoneus blighi, Oreocincla imbricata, Turdus 

 kinnisi, and Palumbus torringtonm in Ceylon are respectively represented in the hills of South 

 India by Layardia subrufa, Pomatorhinus horsfieldi, Alcippe atriceps, Garrulax delesserti, Myio- 

 phoneus horsfieldi, Oreocincla nilgherriensis, Turdus simillima, and Palumbus elphinstonii. 



But though this strong similarity in the avifauna of the mountains in question, as well as 

 their geological characters, indicate a contemporaneous upheaval and enrichment with animal 

 life of their surfaces, a similar connexion is found between the northern parts of the island and 

 the low country of the Carnatic. Here, again, we have in the fossiliferous limestones of the two 

 regions an undoubted connexion, and also an affinity in their avifauna, which differs totally from 

 the mountain-districts on either side of the straits. The northern parts of Ceylon, as well as the 

 south-eastern, both of which I shall speak of in my remarks on the geographical features of the 

 island, may be considered to constitute an Indo-Ceylonese subregion, and are inhabited by the same 

 species as the south-east coast-districts of the peninsula. Brachypternus puncticollis, Anthra- 

 coceros coronatus, Malacocercus striatus, Pycnonotus hcemorrhous, Merops viridis, Pyrrhulauda 

 grisea, Mirafra affinis, Turtur risorius, Buchanga atra, and perhaps Cursor ins coromandelicus are 

 species characteristic of the north of Ceylon and of Ramisserum Island and the plains of Tanjore, 

 but which are not inhabitants of the damp Malabar district. On the other hand it is noteworthy 

 that Gallus sonnerati and the Lesser Florrikin (Sypheotides aurita), common in the Carnatic, 

 have not yet been detected in North Ceylon. It is by way of the low-lying country of the 

 Carnatic (the fauna of which, it may be remarked in passing, is allied to that of Central India) 

 that the cool-season migrants enter the island of Ceylon, leaving numbers of their fellows in 

 Southern India; and this forms an additional ornithological bond between the two districts. 

 Some of these migrants come from the regions at the foot of the Himalayas, and tend to the 

 supposition that there is a Himalayan element in the avifauna of Ceylon ; but this is but very 

 slight, if, indeed, it should at all be recognized, for migratory species, such as Scolopax rusticula 

 and Gallinago nemoricola (which only inhabit the upper ranges and the high mountains of 

 Southern India, and whose locale depends solely on climate), cannot be taken into consideration. 

 One genus (Pachyglossa) certainly does constitute a bond of affinity. The distinctness of the avi- 

 fauna of the Southern-Indian and Ceylonese mountains from that of the Himalayas may be shown 

 by the fact that most of the Himalayan typical Timaline genera, Suthora, Stachyris, Trochalopteron, 



