OCR Text |
Show 1873.] DISTRIBUTION OF ASIATIC BIRDS. 653 and Africa, which has been insisted on by some writers of great eminence, does not now appear to m e to be so strong as it did at first sight, and as I thought it was when I began to go into the question. During m y stay in India I visited and collected more or less in the Carnatic, Travancore hills, Bengal, Lower Assam, N.W. Provinces, Punjab, and Central Provinces ; but I was never long enough in any part of the country except Sikkim to acquire more than a general idea of its ornithology. I then supposed that the birds of the plains generally had little in common with those of the Malay countries; but when I began to examine and analyze lists from various parts of the country, I found that, though such genera as Centropus, Malacocercus, Pycnonotus, Dicrurus, Ploceus, Thamnobia, and Pyrrhulauda are the most conspicuous and constantly observed, yet wherever the country becomes hilly or better wooded, as in many parts of Southern, Central, and Western India, the almost certain occurrence of such genera as Pitta, Myiophonus, Hypsipetes, Pericrocotus, Phyllornis, Carpophaga, or of some species of the Malayan Hornbills, Woodpeckers, and Barbets, shows to m y mind conclusively that the general absence or scarcity of Malay forms is only the result of the general absence of suitable climate and vegetation. To strengthen this opinion it may be mentioned that since the planting and preservation of trees, which has taken place in some parts of the country of late years, an increase in the number and variety of tree-loving birds has been remarked. Most of these are of Malay rather than African genera*. In all the hills of Southern and Central India, such as the Pulnies, Neilgherries, Shevaroys, Eastern Ghats, Mahadeva, and Gawilgarh hills, in the whole range of the Western Ghats, in the jungles of Midnapore, Sumbulpore, and the Mahanuddy, and even as far north as the isolated range of Mount Abu, these Indo-Malay types will be found in more or less abundance. They are frequently accompanied by the aboriginal races of men, who, like the birds, have fled before cultivation and the persecution of a superior race to the most inaccessible jungles and mountains. A better acquaintance with these hill-ranges, many of which are still lamentably unknown, will probably show that the Malay fauna is present in a more or less * P.S. A s considerable objection was made to this theory by'some gentlemen present at the meeting when this paper was read, I would say, to prevent misunderstanding, that though I a m not prepared to deny the existence of sufficient resemblance between the fauna of Africa and India to justify their union into one region, yet as long as they are kept separate, which (from an ornithological point of view alone) seems desirable, I think that the birds of India have more affinity, both generically and specifically, with the birds of the Indo-Malay than with those of the Ethiopian region. After carefully and impartially analyzing the most accurate lists I can obtain of the birds found in various parts of it, as well as in the country generally, I can find hardly any genera really characteristic of the Ethiopian region-many which are often considered so, such as Tchitrea, Zosterops, Bicrurus, Ploceus, Estrelda, being equally well represented in countries east of India; while others, such as Aquila, Gyps, Saxicola, Pratincola, Pterocles, Galerida, & c , are really far more characteristic of the S. and S.E. parts of the Palaearctic region. |