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EDITOKIAL GLEANINGS. 



A PAPER recently read before the Royal Society by Mr. W. T. Blanford, 

 LL.D., &c., is written with the object of investigating the zoological divisions 

 of British India and its dependencies, including Ceylon, as shown by the evi- 

 dence afforded by the eight volumes of the ' Fauna of British India,' contain- 

 ing the descriptions of the Vertebrata. For the purpose of this investigation 

 the whole area of India, Ceylon, and Burma has been divided into tracts, 

 nineteen in number, distinguished by various physical characters, such as 

 rainfall, height above the sea, presence of forest, &c., and tables showing 

 the distribution of each vertebrate genus in these different tracts have been 

 prepared. Briefly the results are the following : — 



The whole area contains portions of five different subregions, two of 

 which are assigned to the Holarctic (Palsearctic) region, and three to the 

 Indo-Malay (Indian or Oriental). The first two are (1) the Punjab and 

 Sind, with Baluchistan regarded as appertaining to the Eremian, Tyrrhenian, 

 or Mediterranean province ; and (3) the higher Himalayas and Western 

 Tibet, which belong to the Tibetan subregion. The three Indo-Malay 

 subregions are (1) the Cisgangetic, formed by the Indian Peninsula and 

 Ceylon, the only subregion entirely confined to the area ; (2) the Trans- 

 gangetic, comprising the Himalayas, Assam, and Burma within the area, 

 and Southern China, &c., farther to the eastward ; and (3) the Malayan, to 

 which Southern Tenasserim is referred. These subregions correspond to 

 those of Wallace, except that his Ceylonese and Indian subregions are 

 united. 



The differences between the Cisgangetic and Transgangetic faunas are 

 explained, and it is shown that in Peninsular India, with Ceylon, traces of 

 three distinct elements can be found in the fauna. One of these — the 

 Indo-Malay — is common to India and the countries east of the Bay of 

 Bengal. Another, termed Aryan, is probably a late tertiary, perhaps a 

 pliocene immigrant from Central Asia, and is well represented in the 

 Siwalik fossils ; whilst the third, consisting of certain reptiles, batrachians, 

 and invertebrates peculiar to Southern India and Ceylon, is thought to have 

 probably inhabited the country longer than either of the others. 



The manner in which the Burmese and Assamese fauna has penetrated 

 the Himalayan forest area, dying out gradually to the westward, is attri. 

 buted to recent immigation from Assam after the glacial epoch. This and 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. V., March, 1901. k 



