396 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



With regard to the date of the separation of Ceylon from 

 India, for instance, Mr. Lydekker writes : — 



" The numerous species of mammals common to the two 

 areas show that this must have taken place at a very recent date, 

 comparatively speaking ; although at a period when several of the 

 mammals now inhabiting Southern India had not yet occupied 

 that portion of their distributional area. 



" When discussing the possibility of a former land connection 

 across the Bay of Bengal, between Ceylon and Southern India 

 on the one hand and the Malayan countries on the other, 

 Dr. Blanford was careful to point out that the ocean-bed 

 afforded no evidence in favour of such a line of communication. 

 This feature, together with certain marked differences between 

 the mammals of the two areas, appears to afford a conclusive 

 argument that these countries have never been much more 

 closely connected than they are at present. Had any more 

 extensive connection existed, we should surely expect to find 

 Antelopes, Gazelles, and perhaps Asses, in the more open 

 districts of Upper Burma; while the Bay of Bengal would 

 scarcely have formed such a sharp line limiting the eastward 

 range of Wolves, Foxes, Hysenas, and other mammals, as it 

 actually does. This is more evident if fossil forms are con- 

 sidered, and these circumstances, together with the depth of the 

 sea in the Bay of Bengal, seem to disprove the suggestion 

 of Dr. Wallace (op. cit. p. 359) that a continuous tract of land 

 formerly connected Borneo and the rest of Malaysia with the 

 central parts of Ceylon, and extended oastwards to Hainan." 



Mr. Lydekker does not attempt a detailed description of the 

 mammalian fauna of the Malay Peninsula and Islands, but 

 selects that of the Bornean Group as an example of what may 

 be called the typical Malayan sub-region, as distinct from Java, 

 which differs markedly in its fauna from Borneo and Sumatra. 

 His chief reason for selecting Borneo is that its fauna has been 

 carefully worked out by Messrs. Everett and Hose, on whose 

 authority he gives a list of the Mammalia, omitting, of course, 

 introduced species like the Buffalo. 



Mr. Lydekker has crammed a great number of facts into his 

 small volume, but on several points of interest on which we have 

 looked for information touching the geographical distribution of 



