Further east the numbers decrease, Batchian producing seventeen, and New Guinea only thirteen, though this number is certainly too small, owing to our present imperfect knowledge of that great island. In estimating these numbers I have had the usual difficulty to encounter, of determining what to consider species and what varieties. The Malayan region, consisting of a large number of islands of generally great antiquity, possesses, compared to its actual area, a great number of distinct forms, often indeed distinguished by very slight characters, but in most cases so constant in large series of specimens, and so easily separable from each other, that I know not on what principle we can refuse to give them the name and rank of species. One of the best and most orthodox definitions is that of Pritchard, the great ethnologist, who says, that “_separate origin and distinctness of race, evinced by a constant transmission of some characteristic peculiarity of organization_,” constitutes a species. Now leaving out the question of “origin,” which we cannot determine, and taking only the proof of separate origin, “_the constant transmission of some characteristic peculiarity of organization_,” we have a definition which will compel us to neglect altogether the _amount_ of difference between any two forms, and to consider only whether the differences that present themselves are _permanent_. The rule, therefore, I have endeavoured to adopt is, that when the difference between two forms inhabiting separate areas seems quite constant, when it can be defined in words, and when it is not confined to a single peculiarity only, I have considered such forms to be species. When, however, the individuals of each locality vary among themselves, so as to cause the distinctions between the two forms to become inconsiderable and indefinite, or where the differences, though constant, are confined to one particular only, such as size, tint, or a single point of difference in marking or in outline, I class one of the forms as a variety of the other.