Zoological Regions

The Primates of the Ethiopian region include lemurs belonging to two groups, the Lemuriformes, which are restricted to Mada gascar and the Lorisiformes, which do not occur there but are represented by the galagos and pottos, allied to animals living in the Oriental region. Monkeys belonging to the two sub-families of Cercopithecinae and Semnopithecinae occur throughout the forested regions. The most characteristic members of the latter are the typical baboons with short tails and elongated muzzles; these animals are terrestrial in habit and usually live in large tribes ; they are at present confined to Africa and Arabia. The dense forests of western equatorial Africa are the home of the giant apes, the chimpanzee and gorilla, which are restricted to the region.

Oriental Region.

The Oriental region proper includes the whole of India except the Punjab, Ceylon, Malaysia and the Malay archipelago, including Java, Sumatra and Borneo, but not Celebes, which forms a transition with Notogaea. The region con tains no monotremes or marsupials. The "edentates" are repre sented by the single genus Manis. The Zalambdodont insectivores are unrepresented, whilst the dilambdodonts include as special forms Gymniura and Hydromys which are essentially spineless hedgehogs, and a variety of shrews of the genus Soriculus. The Menotyphla are represented by tree-shrews, Tupaia and Ptilocer cus. Galaeopithecus represents a distinct order. The rodents in

clude amongst many forms of wide distribution certain endemic genera of which the flying squirrels are perhaps the most striking. The carnivores include lions, leopards, tigers, cheetahs and many smaller cats; bears, wolves, foxes and dholes; striped hyaenas, civets and mongooses. The perissodactyls include a single horse, two species of rhinoceroses belonging to different genera to those which occur in Africa, and a tapir restricted to the forests of the Malayan sub-region. Pigs belonging to several species, and chevrotains of the genus Tragulus are not found elsewhere. There are certain deer belonging to genera peculiar to the region, a few antelopes, the nilghai and black buck, also many and unusual forms of oxen, the buffalo, the gaour, and in Celebes alone the very primitive form, Anoa. In the mountains the tahr (Cerorus), gorals and .takin are curious forms whose relatives are to be met with in the Palaearctic region and possibly in the Rocky Mountain goat of North America. Two groups of lemurs occur within the area, the Lorisiformes, including the slender and slow lorises ; and the Tarsiiformes with the single living genus, Tarsius. Semno pitheces and cercopitheces are widely distributed, though baboons are absent from this region.

The gibbons (Hylobates) are found only in the Malayan sub region and the orang occurs in Borneo.