Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/780

Rh 702 BIRDS [DISTRIBUTION. themselves. It is certain that many genera, or even families, which fire common in Burmah are wanting in the Andamans, such as the Timeliidce, Pittidce, Eurylcemidce, and JBucerotidce, though a peculiar form of the last occurs on Narcondam, an island between the Andamans and Burmah, and there is an extreme paucity of several other families. Still the Andamans possess an avifauna of some 155 species, 17 of which (all Land-birds) are peculiar. The precise number of species found in the Nicobars is not explicitly stated by Mr Hume, but he gives 10 as peculiar to that group, which is inhabited by two very noteworthy forms Caloenas, a very remarkable genus of Columbidce, widely spread throughout the Malayan archipelago, and a species of Megapodius, belonging to one of the most characteristic families of the Australian Region. The pre sence of these two forms would almost incline one to remove the Nicobars from the Siibregion to which they have generally been assigned, and refer them rather to the Malayan Subregion. a. It is now necessary to retrace our steps northward and notice China ; 1 but this is a branch of the subject on which it is as yet impossible to form an opinion. The chief authority on Chinese ornithology is unquestionably Mr Swinhoe, who has for so long a time laboured in various parts of that country equally as a public servant and a naturalist ; but the results of his multitudinous contribu tions to our knowledge of its avifauna have never yet been tabulated, and probably their author is alone competent to perform this task without running into errors that would be disastrous in their consequences. In his latest cata logue of the Birds of China, 2 he enumerates 675 species as found in that country and its islands ; but valuable and carefully-drawn up as this list is, it is impossible to elimin ate therefrom the species not strictly belonging to that part of the Celestial Empire which lies within our present bounds ; or even were this possible, an intimate acquaint ance with its ornis would be required to separate the birds- of-passage from the residents, and still more to classify them according to their several Orders and families. Add to this, that assiduously as Mr Swinhoe has himself worked in the field, and diligently as he has availed himself of such information as he could obtain from other trust worthy observers, only the outskirts of this great territory have, with few exceptions, been examined. Much is it to be hoped that he will be able in due time to bring forth the ripe fruit of his labours, but meanwhile the attempt to elucidate the peculiarities of the avifauna of China proper, that is, south at least of the Yangstzekiang and of Cochin China, would be vain if not misleading. The two principal islands lying off the Chinese coast, however, are in a different condition. One of them has been extremely and the other tolerably well ransacked by icsa. Mr Swinhoe. In Formosa he has found 144 species, referable to 102 genera, of which 98 are found in the Himalayan Subregion, and 70 in the Malayan. The species may be thus assorted : 74 belong to wide-ranging genera, 47 to genera common to the Himalayan and Malayan Subregions, 18 are peculiar to, or characteristic of, the former Subregion, and 5 to China itself; 18 are not found in the Malayan Subregion, and no less than 34 are tan. peculiar to the island. For Hainan Mr Swinhoe has enumerated 130 species belonging to 96 genera, of which latter 86 are common to the Malayan Subregion, and 93 to the Himalayan. Of the species 54 belong to wide- ranging genera, 59 to genera characteristic of the Indian 1 Of China proper Mr Elwes says little, but he includes Eastern Thibet in this Subregion. The present writer, however, is disposed to refer that, or at any rate the scene of Pere David s discoveries, to the Paloearctic Region, 4 I roc, Zool. Soc. 1871, pp. 337-343. Indian Subregi and 16 of the Palrcarctic Region, while 16 are believed to be peculiar to the island. (2.) The Indian /Subregion, still following Mr Elwes, is the next to be considered. This consists of the remainder of the peninsula of India lying to the south and west of the last, as well as of the island of Ceylon. Its partition into provinces has been several times attempted, and doubt less the method proposed by Mr Blanford, when treating of the geographical distribution of Indian Reptiles, 3 is one of the most reasonable, but even this may perhaps be pre mature, 4 and here it seems preferable to abstain from doing more than consider, so far as materials are available, the avifauna of the various districts of which it is composed the more so since the extraordinary impulse given to the study of ornithology in India by the publication of the late Dr Jerdon s work 5 will doubtless in a few years place the whole subject in a very different light, for the number of Indian ornithologists is grown so considerable that that- country has now a journal especially devoted to the record of their observations. Beginning in the north-west with the Punjab, we have as yet no complete list of the Birds of this most important district, and we can only infer that we shall here tind the Malayan influence at its least, and the Palaearctic at its greatest ; but descending the Indus to Sindh we have a discursive account of its, ornithology by Mr Hume, 6 from which Mr Elwes gives the following results: of 150 species observed, 41 are peculiarly desert-forms, and as such either very nearly allied to cr identical with the like forms of the Palaearctic and Ethiopian Regions ; 40 are peculiar to the Indian Subregion, 8 are common to the Malayan, 4 to the non-desert portions of the Ethiopian, and 12 to the similar parts of the Palrearctic Region, while 45 do not come under any of these heads. Omitting the desert-forms as not leading to any just conclusion, it would appear that Sindh has less affinity to the Ethiopian Region than to the Palsearctic, that is to say, to its Mediterranean Subregion. The very remarkable district of Cutch yielded 115 Land-birds to Stoliczka, 7 and these were mostly mi grants or common Indian species of wide range. Of Rajpootana and Central India we know very little, but near Goona, about 200 miles to the south of Agra, Dr King some years since observed 116 species of Land- birds; 8 and more lately Mr Adam has noticed 171 species of Land-birds around the Sambhur Lake in its western portion. We must next turn eastward to Oudh, wherein Col. Irby (Ibis. 1861, p. 217) obtained 108 species of Land-birds, but of these 23 were found only on the hills of Kumaon. There seems to be a remarkable absence of many of the most widely-spread genera of the Region, and many forms generally common to Africa are also wanting ; but no doubt Mr Brooks, who has of late industriously investi gated this portion of the country, will be able to supply some of these unaccountable deficiencies. We may judge of what are politically known as the Central &quot; Central Provinces &quot; of India, as well as of Bundelcund, Malwa, and Chota ISTagpore, forming the &quot; Gangetic&quot; sub- province of Mr Blanford, from observations made by that gentleman and Colonel M Master, 10 wherein 190 species of Land-birds are enumerated, of which 38 have a very wide range, 57 belong to widely-ranging genera but are almost s Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1S70, pp. 335-376. 8 Tlic Birds of India. Calcutta : 1S62-64. 6 Stray Feathers, i. pp. 44-49, 91-239, 419-421. 7 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Ucnyal, 1872, pp. 211-258. 8 Op. cit. 1868, pp. 208-218. 9 Stray Feathers, i. pp. 3G1-404. 10 Ibis, 18G7, p. 461 ; Proc. As. Soc, Beng. 1869, p. 104 ; Journ. As. Soc. Beny. 1871, pp. 207-216. provmc of Indi;
 * Compare Dr Giinther s remarks, Zoological Record, vii. p. 67.