DISTEIBUTION OF OPHIDIANS. 
221 
Eiyx, tlie Coronella Eiisseli, and Cor. octolineata, several 
species of the genera Coluber and Lycodon, the Dipsas 
trigonata, several Tropidonoti, the Elaps trimaculatus, 
and several Vipers. The productions of the Indian Pen- 
insula beyond the Ganges having been very little studied, 
we pass on to Malayan Asia, which offers one of the most 
curious regions of the globe for studying the geographic 
distribution, not only of animals, but also of vegetables ; 
and the results obtained by this study will greatly contri- 
bute to confirm the ideas which we have so often stated in 
our work, on the innumerable modifications which animals 
of the same stock present, in the diverse countries they in- 
habit. The islands which compose the Great Indian Ar- 
chipelago belong to islands of the first order, and are sur- 
rounded with numerous reefs or islets, more or less con- 
siderable. Situated under the tropics, covered with a 
luxuriant vegetation, and peopled with a vast number of 
animals of all classes, they are separated from each other 
by arms of the sea, mostly very narrow, but which form 
an insurmountable obstacle to the majority of animals.^ 
At once, then, on observing on several of those isles the 
same species, we may be certain that the animals on dif- 
ferent islands having no communication with each other, 
would form on each of these isles an isolated family, the 
individuals of which living since their creation, or at least 
since those isles received their present form, in places 
differing more or less in their nature, should exhibit mo- 
difications more or less sensible. Experience, in fact, 
proves the truth of what I state. It often happens that 
the same species of animal has been discovered in Su- 
matra, Java, Borneo, Timor, Celebes, and even in the 
Besides the Archipelago of Malayan Asia, that of the Great Antilles 
is the only other point on the globe which offers a favourable position 
for the comparative study of individuals of the same species, inhabiting 
at once several countries separated by the sea ; but these last islands 
are almost all situated under the same parallels ; they are neither so 
numerous, nor so large, nor so distant from each other, as those of 
Malayan Asia ; besides, they are much less rich in objects of natural his- 
tory, and have been but little explored, in comparison with the Isles of 
Malayan Asia, which have, for more than twenty years, been the object of 
the assiduous researches of our travellers. 
