Among birds the most conspicuous and remarkable are, the great-billed vulture-crows (Corvultur), the long-tailed {44} whydah finches (Vidua), the curious ox-peckers (Buphaga), the splendid metallic starlings (Lamprocolius), the handsome plantain-eaters (Musophaga), the ground-hornbills (Bucorvus), the numerous guinea-fowls belonging to four distinct genera, the serpent-eating secretary-bird (Serpentarius), the huge boat-billed heron (Balaeniceps), and the true ostriches. There are also three quite peculiar African families, the Musophagidae or plantain-eaters, including the elegant crested touracos; the curious little finch-like colies (Coliidae), and the Irrisoridae, insect-eating birds allied to the hoopoes but with glossy metallic plumage and arboreal habits. In reptiles, fishes, insects, and land-shells, Africa is very rich, and possesses an immense number of peculiar forms. These are not sufficiently familiar to require notice in a work of this character, but we may mention a few as mere illustrations: the puff-adders, the most hideous of poisonous snakes; the chameleons, the most remarkable of lizards; the goliath-beetles, the largest and handsomest of the Cetoniidae; and some of the Achatinae, which are the largest of all known land-shells. _Definition and Characteristic Groups of the Oriental Region._--The Oriental region comprises all Asia south of the Palaearctic limits, and along with this the Malay Islands as far as the Philippines, Borneo, and Java. It was called the Indian region by Mr. Sclater, but this term has been objected to because the Indo-Chinese and Malayan districts are the richest and most characteristic, while the peninsula of India is the poorest portion of it. The name "Oriental" has therefore been adopted in my work on _The Geographical Distribution of Animals_ as preferable to either Malayan or Indo-Australian, both of which have been proposed, but are objectionable, as being already in use in a different sense. The great features of the mammals of the Oriental region are, the long-armed apes, the orang-utans, the tiger, the sun-bears and honey-bears, the tapir, the chevrotains or mouse-deer, and the Indian elephant. Its most conspicuous birds are the immense number and variety of babbling-thrushes (Timaliidae), its beautiful little hill-tits (Liotrichidae), its green bulbuls (Phyllornithidae), its many varieties {45} of the crow-family, its beautiful gapers and pittas adorned with the most delicate colours, its great variety of hornbills, and its magnificent Phasianidae, comprising the peacocks, argus-pheasants, fire-backed pheasants, and jungle-fowl. Many of these are, it is true, absent from the peninsula of Hindostan, but sufficient remain there to ally it with the other parts of the region.