Animal Geography . 
1877.] 
59 
that no information has been given concerning the inserts 
of the two islands.* 
The Andaman and Nicobar groups have been assigned, 
the former to the Indo-Chinese and the latter to the Ma- 
layan region, an arrangement which we think no judicious 
zoo-geographer will call in question. 
But a much more serious question remains. Certain na- 
turalists, who have made the fauna of India their especial 
study, hold that its affinities with Africa overbalance those 
with Malaya. Mr. Crawford maintains that this Ethiopian 
affinity was more pronounced in the tertiary period than it 
is at present. It is further urged that as there is easy 
communication for birds, and even for mammals, between 
India and Indo-China, or even Malaya, but long traCts of 
sea and desert between the former and the Ethiopian region, 
the affinities of India and Africa ought to be estimated at a 
higher value than if the means of access were equal in each 
case. Still, as far as the Mammalia are concerned, we ques- 
tion if the affinities of the Indian sub-region for Africa are 
more pronounced than those for Malaya, or even for the 
PalsearCtic territories. Bears and deer occur in India, but 
have not been met with in Africa, either living or fossilised. 
Of the thirty-eight mammalian genera inhabiting India 
proper, eight are so widely distributed as to give no special 
clue to the question ; “ fourteen are exclusively Oriental ; 
five have as much right to be considered Oriental or Ethio- 
pian, extending as they do over the greater part of the 
Oriental region ; two (the hyaena and gazelle) show Palae- 
ardtic rather than Ethiopian affinity ; seven are Palaeardtic 
and Oriental, but not Ethiopian ; and only two (the hunting 
leopard and the Mellivora ) are distinctly Ethiopian.” 
The Ethiopian region, if we include Madagascar, is also 
divided into four sub-regions, which, however, Mr. Wallace 
regards as “ in some extent provisional.” The East-African 
sub-region includes all the open country south of the Great 
Desert, and extending eastwards to the Indian Ocean, and 
southwards to about 20° S. latitude. It has few peculiar 
forms, and its north-eastern regions are almost as much 
Palaeardtic as Ethiopian ; while the fauna of the forests of 
Mozambique, though on the eastern coast, approaches in 
charadter to the western or southern sub-region. The 
western district includes the mass of forest which lies in the 
* A large amount of our knowledge on the distribution of animals is due to 
sportsmen, who often do excellent service as regards mammals and birds, but 
who generally overlook the reptiles, and almost invariably ignore the inseds. 
