OCR Text |
Show 44 ISLAND LIFE [PART 1. A · z ~: ble to ei'ther Malayan or Indo-Australian, n~ma s as pre1era . . both of which have been proposed, but are obJectiOnable, as being already in use in a differ~nt sense .. The great features of the Onental regiOn are, the long-armed apes, the orang-utans, the ~iger, the sun-bears and hon~ybears, the tapir, the chevrotams ~r mouse-de~r, and the Indian ole hant. Its most conspicuous birds are the Immense number anf variety of babbling-thrushes (Timaliidre), its boautifu I little hill-tits (Liotrichidre), its green bulbuls (Phyllornithidm) , its many varieties of the crow-fa~ily, its beau~iful gapers ~nd pittas adorned with the most delicate c?lo~rs, It8 gre~t. vanoty of hornbills and its magnificent Phas1amdre, compnsmg tho peacocks, a;gus-pheasants, fire-backed pheasants, and j~nglofowl. Many of these are, it is tru~, absent from the. pe~msula of Hindostan, but sufficient remam there to ally 1t w1th tho other parts of the region. Among the remarkable but less conspicuous forms of mammalia which are peculiar to this region are, monkeys of tho genus Presbyter, extending to every part of it; lemurs of three peculiar genera-Nycticebus a.nd Loris (slow ~emurs) and Tarsius (spectre lemurs); the flymg lemur (Galeop1thecus), now classed as a peculiar family of Insectivora and .found only in the Malay Islands; the family of the Tupaias, or squirrelshrews, curiou£ little arboreal Insectivora somewhat resemb]ing 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 Ptoromys. Of the peculiar groups of birds we can only mention a few. The curious little tailor-birds, of the genus Orthotomus, arc found over the whole region, and almost alone serve to characterise it, as do the fine laughing-thrushes, forming the genus Garrulax; while the beautiful grass-green fruit-thrushes (Phyllornis), and the brilliant little minivets (Pericrocotus), are almost equally universal. Woodpeckers are abundant, belonging to a dozen peculiar genera; while gaudy bar bets and strange forms of cuckoos and hornbills are also to be met with everywhere. Among game birds, the only genus that is universally distributed, and which may be said to characterise the region, is CIJ AP. III.] ZOOLOGICAL REG IONS. 45 Gb allus, comprising th . 1 . . e true JUngle-fowl, one of which, Gallus ;~ uva, I~ found from the Himalayas and Central India to d a baccda, ~v.a, and even eastward to Timor and is the 1un-ou te on am of 1 t ll . ' I d . d Co a mos a our domestic poultry. Southern n 1a an . eyl.o n each p ossess d'I S tm' et speci.e s of J. ungle-fowl, and a third veiy handsome green bi'rd (G 11 ) . h b' J ava. a us reneus m a Its Reptiles are as abun.d ant as in Africa , but the y presen t no well-known groups w.h1Ch can be considered as specially cha-racteristic. Among I~s~ct~ we may notice the magnificent golden and green Papihomdre of various genera as being unequalled in. the :vorld; w~ile the great Atlas moth is probably the most gigantic of Lepidoptera, being sometimes ten inches across the wings, which are also very broad. Among the beetles the strange flat-bodied Malayan mormolyce is the largest of all the Carabida:, while the catoxantha is equaUy a giant among the Buprestidre. On the whole, the insects of this region probably surpass those of any other part of the world, except South America, in size, variety, and beauty. Definition and Characteristic Groups of the Australian Region.-The Australian region is so well marked off from the O~iental, as. w~l~ as from all other parts of the world, by zoologiCal pecuhanties, that we need not take up much time in describing it, especially as some of its component islands will come under review at a subsequent stage of our work. Its most important portions are Australia and New Guinea but it also includes all the Malayan and Pacific Islands t~ the east of Borneo, Java, and Bali, the Oriental region terminating with the submarine bank on which those islands are situated. The island of Celebes is included in this region from a balance of considerations, .but it almost equally well belongs to the Oriental, and must be· left out of the account in our general sketch of the zoological features of the Australian region. The great feature of the Australian region is the almost tota't absence of all the forms of mammalia which abound in t:Ue rest of the. world, their place being supplied by a great v:t..riety of Marsupials. In Australia and New Guinea there are no |