INTRODUCTION, 
well-marked races* one of which, it is most interesting to note, is 
found on Panebangan Island which lies within the five fathom line 
and presumably within sight of the Bornean coast. 
Many subspecies of birds have been described from the Natuna 
Islands. The special affinities of the birds of the southern group are 
Sarawacian, but in the northern islands the Bornean influence is less 
marked. Only on Great Natuna Island is there anything but an 
impoverished avifauna. 
THE / AVAN PROVINCE.' 
Java wiih Madura ; Bali . Many small islands in the Java Sea, 
the most important of which are the Thousand Islands; the Watcher 
Islands off Batavia; the Karim on- Java Islands; Bawean; the Kangean 
Islands including Raas and Sapudi; various small islands between 
Balt and Borneo , the most important of which are Arends, Sotombo t 
Kalambau, and Mata Sin, Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean . 
The Cocos- Keeling Islands. 
The avifauna of Java is poorer than that of the three other large 
land-masses in Malaysia, a circumstance perhaps due to the smaller 
area of the island. It is, however, the most specialized, or distinct, 
only a minority of its resident land-birds being inseparable from those 
oceuring in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo, whereas the 
majority are well-marked peculiar subspecies, or widely divergent 
forms often called "representative species". The genera Psaltria and 
Crocias are peculiar to Java which also shares with the Himalayas, 
and not with the rest of Malaysia, Sennas, One of the most striking 
features of the Javan avifauna is that it shares a number of birds 
with the Indo-Chinese sub-region, these being either absent from the 
rest of Malaysia, or only represented in the north of the Malay Penin- 
sula. This fact has already received notice in this introduction. 
In the extreme west of the island is a minor Sumatran infiltration, 
perhaps of recent date. A marked penetration of Austro-Oriental 
{Lesser Sunda Island) forms is especially noticeable in the east of the 
island. 
There seems to be a slight reduction in the number of species 
correlated with longitude, fewer species being represented in the 
west. Subspecific variation is mainly longitudinal and if a species 
is divided into western and eastern races, the latter may be found on 
Bali. In a few cases montane species are represented by different 
forms on several peaks. 
Basic literature for the Javan Province, — "Birds of the Island of 
Java”, Kuroda, 1933 {Java, Thousand Islands &c.}; Stresemann, Nov. 
Zoo!., xx, 1913, p, 325 and Rensch, Mitt. Zoo l, Mus., xvi, 1930, p. 530 
{Bali}; Chasen and Kloss, Treubia xiv, 1933, p. 165 (Karimon Java) ; 
Oberholser, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., lii, 1917, p. 183 (Bawean); Hartert, 
Nov* Zooh, ix p 1902, p. 419 (Kangean Islands) ; Oberholser, Proc. U.S. 
Nat. Mus., liv, 1917, p. 1,77 (Solorabo, Mata Sir! &c.) ; Chasen, Bull. 
Raffles Mus., 8, 1933, p. 55 (Christmas Island) ; "Corals and Atolls”, Wood- 
Jones, 1912 {Cocos-Keehng Islands}. 
xiii 
