ORIENTAL REGION (Lat once falls, relat ing to the east, from oricos, pres part. of oriri, to rise: connected with Gk. Oovivat, ornynai, Skt. or, to rise). A primary division in zoitgeog raphy, comprising Southeastern Asia and the adjacent islands as far as Wallace's line. (See DISTRIBUTION OF AMMALS.) This "small. Coln pact, but rich and varied" region. according to Wallace-, consists of all India and China, south of the Himalayan highlands; all the Malay Peninsula and islands as far east as Java and Bali, Borneo and the Philippines; and Formosa. It is divided into four subregions: (I) Ceylonese, Southern India and Ceylon: (2 ) Indian. from about Madras to the font of the Himalayas; (3) Indo-Chinese, Burma and Southern China; (4) Malayan, the Peninsula of :Malacca and the Malay and Philippine Islands. This region possesses about a dozen peculiar families of vertebrates, and more than 200 exclusive genera among mam mals and birds alone. Striking examples among these are orang-utans, gibbons, the proboscis monkey (the region is very rich in quadrumanal, the tarsier and certain other lemurs: many bats and insectivores: most of the civets and many cats; the curious panda: two genera of bears: wild cattle. an elephant, and two or more spe
cies of rhinoceros. Among the birds. a great variety of small birds do not occur elsewhere: parrots and pigeons abound, and gallinaceous birds are more numerous and varied than any where else, the pheasants, jungle-fowls, and other groups being peculiar. In respect to insects, the region is hardly less rich than the Neotropical. The affinities between the Oriental and Ethiopian fauna have impressed naturalists strongly, and some have thought that India ought to he in cluded in the latter region: but the weight of opinion seems to favor retaining the boundaries of the Oriental Region as they were made by Wallace. Consult Wallace, Tropical Nat lire London. ISTS).