INTRODUCTION. 
xv 
Actinodura, are wholly absent from Ceylon, and but poorly represented in the bills of South 
India, there being only three species of the numerous genus Trochalopteron in the Nilghiris and 
Palani hills and not any of the others. Again, there is only one species of Garrulax in South 
India and one in Ceylon. Of the widely spread genus Pomatorhinus, found in the Himalayas, 
Burmah, and Java, there is only one species in each of the southern hill-regions in question. 
The genus Alcippe is about equally represented in both regions. These data show that though 
there is a connexion between the ornis of the Himalayas and that of Ceylon it is but slight, and 
only what one would expect in mountain-districts of adjacent ornithological regions. It is 
noteworthy that the Liotrichidse, or Hill-Tits (one of the three peculiar families of the Oriental 
Region, and which are abundant in the Himalayas), are absent from Ceylon. 
Certain Indian families are entirely absent from Ceylon, either as residents or migrants ; 
they are the Eurylaimidee (Broadbills) — a Himalayan and Malayan form, — the Pteroclidse (Sand- 
Grouse), the Otididse (Bustards), Gruidae (Cranes), and Mergidse (Mergansers). Among these 
families it is remarkable that some member of the Gruidse has not yet been found in the cool 
season in North Ceylon; for, though the country is not thoroughly suited to their habits, the 
members of this family being migratory (and one of them, the Demoiselle Crane, extending to 
South India), it is singular that they do not extend their migration a little further south and reach 
the shores of Ceylon. I have heard a vague rumour of a Crane being seen near Mullaittivu ; 
and it is not wholly improbable that the above-mentioned species ( Anthropoides virgo) will 
some day be added to the occasional migrants during the N.E. monsoon. Another family, 
Vulturidse, has a place in the Ceylonese avifauna, owing to a straggler having recently appeared 
in the island. Here, again, is an instance of species which, one would think, ought to occur as 
visitants in the N.E. monsoon ; for I am informed that V ultures are not unfrequently seen in 
the Tanjore district ; and Gyps indicus breeds in the Nilghiris. 
Besides the widely distributed Grallatorial and Natatorial forms common to both India and 
Ceylon, certain Indian genera of western distribution are represented in the island. They are 
Cuculus , Ceryle, Halcyon, Cypselus, Caprimulgus, Corone, Lanius, Tardus , Phylloscopus, Cinnyns, 
Ilirundo , Motacilla, Corydalla , Turtur, Francolinus. Of these the Cuckoos are remarkably 
numerous. 
If we turn now towards the Malayan region we find, in spite of its more remote geographical 
position, quite as close an affinity as with the Himalayas which may perhaps be accounted foi 
on the theory held by some that there was at one time a connexion between the two legions. 
It may, however, be remarked, in passing, that if this did occur it must ha\e been, in all 
probability, by way of the Andamans and Malacca, as ive find the 15,000 feet contour of ocean- 
depth passes up near the east coast of the island into the Bay of Bengal to lat. 10 N. This 
Malayan affinity is shown in the existence in Ceylon of a Malayan form, Phmiicophaes, and a 
member of a typical Sunda-Islancl genus, Myiophoneus. It is also worthy of note that the island 
is visited by a Malaccan emigrant, Gorsachius, which has rarely been met with in India. This 
is remarkable as, in all probability, before the submergence took place which altered the Malayan 
c2 
