INTRODUCTION. 
that the birds on the hills of Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johore 
are usually submontane, or purely lowland species. Certain isolated 
peaks, even in the north of the Peninsula, are similarly characterized. 
Other outstanding features of the peninsular avifauna are that 
certain continental species occur in the north, but not in the south; 
that some characteristically Malaysian species only occur in the south; 
that subspecific variation is north against south, and never west against 
east, which is interesting in view of the fact that the main physical 
feature of the Peninsula is a high range of mountains forming a 
backbone, running north and south; that there is a curious mid- 
peninsular gap in the range of certain woodpeckers; that, although, 
like the other land-masses in Malaysia, the Peninsula has developed 
many subspecies of its own, it contains no species that is not more 
widely spread, although the Malayan race may be well-differentiated; 
and that a cuckoo is found in the lowlands in the northern part of the 
Peninsula and, normally, only in the mountains further south. 
In a few species there is a racial similarity between the resident 
birds of Ceylon, on the one hand, and those of the southern part of 
the Malay Peninsula, or in rarer cases, other, more remote parts of 
Malaysia, on the other. This convergence at the extremities of the 
Ceylon-Burma-Malayan arc is usually attributed to a striking simi- 
larity in the two habitats, although it must be noted that the majority 
of the resident birds in the two areas are very distinct and that the 
similarities in the avifaunas have, at times, been over-emphasized. 
The coastal islands in the Malayan Province are of little special 
interest ornith ©logically. Pheasants, partridges, trogons, barbets, 
woodpeckers, broadbills and most species of babblers are usually 
absent, or rare, although the Langkawi Islands, off the west coast, 
are rather unusual in this respect, and therefore perhaps of recent 
separation. Subspecific differention on these small coastal islands is 
very rare although a Langkawi woodpecker, and a Tioman babbler 
(Sfadiym) have been dignified with racial names. Outstanding 
features are the presence of the argus pheasant on Pangkor in the 
Straits of Malacca and, most interesting, of a wren-babbler ( Napothera ) 
otherwise only known from the mountains of the mainland, on Tioman. 
In the Tioman Archipelago, off the east coast, there are signs of 
subspecific divergence in the direction of the insular subspecies found 
in the Anamba Islands. 
The resident, purely land-birds of the Anamba Islands in the 
South China Sea are merely representatives of common Malayan 
species : most of the species diverge in the direction of large average 
size, although the differences are very small : as noted above these 
differences may be adumbrated on the eastern coastal islands of the 
Malay Peninsula. The Tambelan Islands, between Singapore and 
Borneo and situated nearer to the latter, have an impoverished avi- 
fauna of no special interest, the few resident land-birds apparently 
belonging to the Anamba subspecies. 
IX 
