INDIAUr MAMMALIA. 91 



regions, the former of which includes Burmah, Siam, Anam, South- 

 ern China, the southern Himalaya slopes, and the luxuriant tracts 

 lying along the base of these mountains, known as the "Terai"; 

 and the latter, the Malay Peninsula, with the Indo -Malaysian islands 

 already mentioned. A third sub-region, the Indian, is constituted 

 by the Indian Peninsula, exclusive of the Carnatic. The surface 

 here consists largely of open pasture or grass lands, the funda- 

 ment being in great part the alluvium of the existing rivers. In 

 the northwestern part, bounded by and partly lying within the 

 valley of the Indus, is the Indian Desert, where we encounter a 

 considerable intermixture of strictly Indian, Holarctic, and Ethio- 

 pian animal types. An essentially forest character again distin- 

 guishes the southern extremity of the Indian Peninsula — the Car- 

 natic — and the Island of Ceylon, which together form the fourth 

 sub-region, the Cingalese. 



Zoological Characters of the Oriental Region. — A cursory 

 examination of the Oriental mammalian fauna shows it to be largely 

 made up of characteristic African forms, for which reason, indeed, 

 some naturalists have been induced to unite this region, either in 

 whole or in great part, with the Ethiopian. "We have liere the same 

 extraordinary development of the quadrumanous, carnivore, and 

 ungulate types, although in respect of these last very material differ- 

 ences present themselves which are sufficiently distinctive of the two 

 regions. Thus, in the Oriental region there are no representatives 

 of either the Camelopardelidse or Hippopotamidse, families peculiar 

 tA the African continent; and the only member of the Equidse — the 

 horses, asses, and zebras — the onager (Equus onager), is found in 

 the debatable land along the Indus, which unites the Oriental and 

 Holarctic tracts. There is also a great falling off in the number 

 of antelopes, of which there are scarcely more than a half-dozen 

 species — comprising among others the gazelle, the true antelope, 

 and nylghau ; but their place is in great measure taken by the 

 solid-horned ruminants, the deer, which, as has been seen, are 

 completely wanting in the Ethiopian region, but have here no less 

 than about twenty species, ranging in size from the diminutive 

 muntjac (Cervulus) to the giant rusa. This is also the home of 

 the beautiful axis. The ohevrotains or mouse-deer (Tragulidse), a 

 small group of diminutive deer-like animals characterised by the 

 presence of tusks in the upper jaw, have but one extra-limital 



