1846.] Notes o'n the Fauna of the Nicobar Islands. 375 



Four others exist as varieties, more or less marked, of species met 

 with elsewhere : viz. Todiramphus collaris, Collocalia fuciphaga, Car- 

 pophaga sylvatica, and Chalcophaps indicus. 



Of those which are not peculiar to the Islands, twenty-one are known 

 to occur in the Malayan peninsula (including Palceornis caniceps and 

 Geocichla innotata, which were discovered in the two localities about 

 simultaneously) ; and the remaining three inhabit Arracan, and pro- 

 bably Tenasserim — certainly as regards Zosterops palpebrosus, the others 

 being Calornis affinis,* and Demigretta concolor. It is probable, in- 

 deed, that the whole twenty-four occur in the Malayan peninsula, with 

 also some of the remaining eight, which appear to have been hitherto 

 observed only on the Islands. 



Of the species found likewise in India, the majority are more or less 

 aquatic, belonging chiefly to the Zoology of the Bay and its vicinity : 

 such is Todiramphus collaris, which abounds in the Bengal Soonderbuns, 

 and along the whole eastern shore of the Bay, but is very rare on the 

 Coromandel coast of the peninsula : but Merops philippinensis, Zoste- 

 rops palpebrosus, Myiagra carulea, Chalcophaps indicus (Ind. var.), 

 Turtur suratensis, and even Carpophaga sylvatica,\ are inland species, 

 which are pretty generally diffused — though the last is much more com- 

 mon in the countries eastward (as Assam, Sylhet, Arracan, and Tenas- 

 serim). Dicrurus balicassius I have only seen from Nepal, it being the 

 Buchanga annectans of Mr. Hodgson : and the remaining species includ- 

 ed in the Fauna Indica are Nycticorax griseus, Strepsilas interpres, 

 Totanus hypoleucos, Thalasseus bengalensis, Phaeton athereus, and Peli- 

 canus philippensis . 



Hence, the data supplied by the highly interesting Ornithology of the 

 Nicobars, (so far as we have yet the means of judging,) connect those is- 

 lands with the Malayan Zoological province, as their position on the map 

 would indicate : at the same time that they possess several peculiar and 

 remarkable species, not hitherto discovered on the neighbouring lands. 



* I have unfortunately retained for the Museum no Tenasserim specimens of Calor- 

 nis, not having suspected the distinctness of C. affinis from C. cantor, until Lord A. 

 Hay called my attention to the fact. C. cantor is common at Penang : and I may add 

 that Mr. Barbe has just assured me that the Tenasserim species is C. cantor, and 

 not C. affinis. 



f The very small specimen mentioned in XIV, 857, proves to have been from the 

 Neilgherries ; but whether the race of Southern India is constantly thus diminutive, 

 I am not yet aware. 



