INTRODUCTION. 
THE MALAYAN PROVINCE.' 
The Malay Peninsula ; the small islands close to both tts coasts ; 
the Anamba and Tambelan Islands . 
The northern boundary of this province and consequently that 
of the sub-region is here regarded as Lat. io° N. which is at the 
narrowest part of the Isthmus of Kra. Any furtlier extension 
embraces territory within the political limits of British India, which 
is undesirable. The adopted dividing line, is, furthermore, not un- 
natural, for although on the west coast, along the region of the heavier 
rainfall and evergreen forests the Malayan avifauna extends through 
Tenasserim to about the latitude of Tavov, on the lowlands of the 
east coast the Malayan element in the avifauna of Siam stops at the 
Pakchan Estuary * * 3 . A herpetologist would draw the southern line 
of his Indo-chinese fauna at about Lat. 12 °N. for by lifting it from 
ro°N. about a dozen Malayan species of amphibians and reptiles are 
excluded 3 . A botanist suggests that the division should be at about 
the latitude of Singgora in Peninsular Siam and that an intermediate 
area more Indo-chinese than Malayan lies between Lat. 7 < ’N. and 
io°N. 4 . So little is known of the avifauna of the high mountain 
range between Tenasserim and Siam that any discussion as to its 
affinities would be unprofitable. 
Several faunal boundaries, that is lines either coincident with the 
geographical limits of climatic changes, past, or present, or indicating 
former breaks in the continuity of the land surface, and impeding the 
spread of species, can be appreciated in the Malay Peninsula. There 
is one in the north, stretching from, roughly, Alor Star in Kedah on 
the west coast across to Singgora in Peninsular Siam on the east 
coast. It is noticeable that certain continental species extend further 
south on the west than on the east side of the Peninsula. There is 
also reason to suppose that the Peninsula south of Malacca was once 
isolated, but the biological evidence for this is clearer in mammals 
than in birds. The shallow*, and narrow strait between the mainland 
and Singapore Island also acts as a minor faunal boundary. 
The distinctness of the mountain faunas throughout Malaysia 
has already been mentioned above. It remains to be added that the 
true mountain fauna of the Peninsula fades out in Selangor, and 
» For the ornithological history, general outline, bibliography, etc., of 
this province, sec Robinson, “The Birds of the Malay Peninsula", i, 1027, 
pp. xiii-xlviii (Peninsula); Chas. and KIoss, Journ. Mai. Br. Roy. 
Asiatic Soc., vi, pt iii, 1928, pp. 43-4$ (Anamba islands); Oberholser, 
Proc. U, S. Nat. Mus., Iv, 1019. p. T29 (Tambelan Islands). 
a Robinson and Kloss, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, v, 1921, p. 15. 
3 Malcolm A. Smith, Faun. Brit. Ind,, Reptiles and Amphibia, i, 
I03i* P* 13 * 
4 Ridley, Journ. Straits Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc. 59, ion, p. 55. 
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