44 
ISLAND LIFE 
[part 1. 
Animals as preferable to either Malayan or Indo- Australian, 
both of which have been proposed, but are objectionable, as 
being already in use in a different sense. 
The great features of the Oriental region are, the long-armed 
apes, the orang-utans, the tiger, the sun-bears and honey- 
bears, the tapir, the chevrotains or mouse-deer, and the Indian 
elephant. Its most conspicuous birds are the immense number 
and variety of babbling-thrushes (Timaliidae), its beautiful 
little hill-tits (Liotrichidse), its green bulbuls (Phyllornithidse), 
its many varieties of the crow-family, its beautiful gapers and 
pittas adorned with the most delicate colours, its great variety 
of hornbills, and its magnificent Phasianidse, comprising the 
peacocks, argus-pheasants, fire-backed pheasants, and jungle - 
fowl. Many of these are, it is true, absent from the peninsula 
of Hindostan, but sufficient remain there to ally it with the 
other parts of the region. 
Among the remarkable but less conspicuous forms of mam- 
malia which are peculiar to this region are, monkeys of the 
genus Presbyter, extending to every part of it ; lemurs of three 
peculiar genera — Nycticebus and Loris (slow lemurs) and 
Tarsius (spectre lemurs) ; the flying lemur (Galeopithecus), now 
classed as a peculiar family of Insectivora and found only 
in the Malay Islands ; the family of the Tupaias, or squirrel- 
shrews, curious little arboreal Insectivora somewhat resembling 
squirrels ; no less than twelve peculiar genera of the civet 
family, three peculiar antelopes, five species of rhinoceros, and 
the round-tailed flying squirrels forming the genus Pteromys. 
Of the peculiar groups of birds we can only mention a few. 
The curious little tailor-birds, of the genus Orthotomus, are 
found over the whole region, and almost alone serve to charac- 
terise it, as do the fine laughing-thrushes, forming the genus 
Garrulax ; while the beautiful grass-green fruit-thrushes (Phyl- 
lornis), and the brilliant little minivets (Pericrocotus), are almost 
equally universal. Woodpeckers are abundant, belonging to a 
dozen peculiar genera ; while gaudy barbets and strange forms 
of cuckoos and hornbills are also to be met with everywhere. 
Among game birds, the only genus that is universally distri- 
buted, and which may be said to characterise the region, is 
