44 



ISLAND LIFE 



[part 1. 



Animals as preferable to either Malayan or Indo-Australian^ 

 both of which have been proposed, but are objectionable, as 

 being already in use in a different sense. 



The great features of the Oriental region are, the lon^-armed 

 apes, the orang-utans, the tiger, the sun-bears and honey- 

 bears, the tapir, the chevrotains or mouse-deer, and the Indian 

 elephant. Its most conspicuous birds are the immense number 

 and variety of babbling-thrushes (Timaliidae), its beautiful 

 little hill-tits (Liotrichidse), its green bulbuls (Phyllornithidae), 

 its many varieties of the crow-family, its beautiful gapers and 

 pittas adorned with the most delicate colours, its great variety 

 of horobills, and its magnificent Phasianid^, comprising the 

 peacocks, argus-pheasants, fire-backed pheasants, and jungle - 

 fowl. Many of these are, it is true, absent from the peninsula 

 of Hindostan, but sufficient remain there to ally it with the 

 other parts of the region. 



Among the remarkable but less conspicuous forms of mam- 

 malia which are peculiar to this region are, monkeys of the 

 genus Presbyter, extending to every part of it ; lemurs of tliree 

 peculiar genera — Nycticebus and Loris (slow lemurs) and 

 Tarsius (spectre lemurs) ; the flying lemur (Galeopithecus), now 

 classed as a peculiar family of Insectivora and found only 

 in the Malay Islands ; the family of the Tupaias, or squirrel- 

 shrews, curious little arboreal Insectivora somewhat resembling 

 squirrels ; no less than twelve peculiar genera of the civet 

 family, three peculiar antelopes, five species of rhinoceros, and 

 the round-tailed flying squirrels forming the genus Pteromys. 



Of the peculiar groups of birds we can only mention a few. 

 The curious little tailor-birds, of the genus Orthotomus, are 

 found over the whole region, and almost alone serve to charac- 

 terise it, as do the fine laughing- thrushes, forming the genus 

 Garrulax ; while the beautiful grass-green fruit-thrushes (Phyl- 

 lornis), and the brilliant little minivets (Pericrocotus), are almost 

 equally universal. Woodpeckers are abundant, belonging to a 

 dozen peculiar genera ; while gaudy barbets and strange forms 

 of cuckoos and hornbills are also to be met with everywhere. 

 Among game birds, the only genus that is universally distri- 

 buted, and which may be said to characterise the region, is 



