'72 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



Ceylon, little to any profit can be said, for though much has 

 been written on the avifauna of separate districts of this great 

 area no general summary and analysis thereof has so far been 

 made. 



The Indo-Malayan Sub-region, which is made up of the 

 Peninsula of Malacca, the great Islands of Sumatra, Java and 

 Borneo, and the Philippine Archipelago, possesses a rich and 

 interesting avifauna, though, it is to be noticed, it is remark- 

 able not as the home of any peculiar groups of birds, but rather 

 for striking species and genera, which are represented either in 

 the Indian region proper, or in regions more or less remote 

 therefrom. 



Perhaps the most remarkable of all the birds to be met with 

 in this sub-region are the Argus-pheasants, the Common Argus 

 {Argusianus argus) of the Malay Peninsula ; Gray's Argus {A. 

 g7'ayi) of Borneo, and A . bi-punctatus, the habitat of which so 

 far remains a mystery. In Tonquin the allied crested Argus 

 {Rkeinhardius ocellatus) occurs. 



The Australian Region 



The Australian Region is one of peculiar interest since it is 

 pre-eminently a region of islands, a region of isolation areas. 

 It embraces not only the vast Continent of Australia, but all 

 the islands of the Pacific lying between the Tropics of Cancer 

 and Capricorn, except those lying to the west of a line passing 

 between Lombok and Celebes and south of the Philippines. 



The narrow strait indicated by the line just referred to 

 does not exceed twenty miles in breadth, yet it must be regarded 

 as one of great antiquity, and this because it is of great depth : 

 the avifauna east and west thereof presents entirely different 

 characters. The faunas of the two areas are — east and west 

 of this line — as distinct as those of South America and Africa. 

 A certain amount of interchange has taken place between the 

 land areas adjacent to the dividing strait, but this was to be 

 expected. The avifauna to the west of the strait is Indian, that 

 to the east Australian. 



Space forbids anything like an analysis of the genera and 

 species peculiar to the Australian Region, or even of the Sub- 

 regions Australian, Papuan and Polynesian, which some author- 



