94 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



Archipelago. They comprise one or two species of Orang (Borneo 

 and Sumatra), tlie long-armed gibbons (Hylobates), whose range 

 extends from Java to Assam and China, and the siamang, a native 

 of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. The half-monkeys, or 

 lemurs (Nycticebus, Stenops), which were found to be so charac- 

 teristic of the Madagascar fauna, show a very great diminution in 

 numbers in the Oriental region. Their most distinctive or anom- 

 alous type is the tarsicr or spectrum lemur (Tarsius spectrum), 

 an inhabitant of Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes (Austro-Malaysian), 

 which of itself constitutes a distinct family (Tarsiido?). In the 

 structure of its feet — the extraordinary and unequal development 

 of the toes — and in several other peculiarities it is closely related 

 to the aye-aye, from which to the true lemurs it appears to form a 

 passage. Until recently classed with the lemurs, but now con- 

 sidered as representing the type of a distinct family of insectivorous 

 animals, are the cat-monkeys or flying -lemurs (Galeopithecus), 

 which inhabit the larger islands of the Malay Archipelago and the 

 Philippines. 



The bird- fauna of the Oriental region is exceedingly rich and 

 varied, and, as might have been expected from its position, com- 

 prises in its assemblage a very large proportion of Holarctic, Ethio- 

 pian, and Australian forms. But the number of distinctive forms 

 are sufficiently numerous, and eminently serve to characterise the 

 region. Among these are the laughing or babbling thrushes (Timal- 

 idas), a family which, though not absolutely restricted to the 

 region, has its headquarters there. Nearly two hundred of the 

 two hundred and fifty described species occur here, and are found 

 in nearly all parts of the region. Less numcroun in species, but 

 scarcely less distinctive, are the Leiotrichidse, or hill-tits, found in 

 all parts of the Himalaya Mountains ; the Pycnodontidas, or bul- 

 buls; Phyllornithidse, or green bulbuls; and the minivets of tlie 

 genus Pericrocotus, one of the group of caterpillar-caters. Of the 

 warblers (Sylviadas), the peculiar tailor-bird (Orthotomns) has about 

 thirteen to fifteen species. The starlings are represented, among 

 other forms, by the sacred mynah (Eulabes) and the roseate pastor 

 (Pastor roseus); the bee-eatera by Merops and the resplendent 

 Nyctiornis; the sun-birds (Nectarinidie) by the Nectarophila and 

 Arechnothera. The flower-peckers (DicreidiB), a group of small, 

 gaily-coloured birds representmg the South American sugar-birds, 



