be absent when the first edition of
this work was published have since been discovered, among which are
Phyllornis, Criniger, Diceum, Prionochilus, and Batrachostomus. But there
still remain a large number of highly characteristic Malayan genera whose
absence gives a distinctive feature to the Philippine bird fauna. Among
these are Tiga and Meiglyptes, genera of woodpeckers; Phaenicophaes and
Centropus, remarkable cuckoos; the long-tailed paroquets, Palaeornis; all
the genera of Barbets except Xantholaema; the small but beautiful family
Eurylaemidae; many genera allied to Timalia and Ixos; the mynahs, Gracula;
the long-tailed flycatchers, Tchitrea; the fire-backed pheasants,
Euplocamus; the argus pheasants, the jungle-fowl, and many others.

The following tabular statement will illustrate the rapid growth of our
knowledge of the birds of the Philippines:--

|Land-birds.|Water-birds.|Total.
+-----------+------------+------
Lord Tweeddale's Catalogue (1873) | 158 | 60 | 218
Mr. Wardlaw Ramsay's List (1881) | 265 | 75 | 340
Mr. Everett's MSS. List of Additions (1891)| 370 | 102 | 472

The number of peculiar species is very large, there being about 300 land
and forty-two water birds, which are not {389} known to occur beyond the
group. We have here, still more pronounced than in the case of Borneo, the
remarkable fact of the true land birds presenting a larger amount of
speciality than the land mammals; for while more than four-fifths of the
birds are peculiar, only a little more than half the mammals are so, and if
we exclude the bats only two-thirds.

The general character of the fauna of this group of islands is evidently
the result of their physical conditions and geological history. The
Philippines are almost surrounded by deep sea, but are connected with
Borneo by means of two narrow submarine banks, on the northern of which is
situated Palawan, and on the southern the Sulu Islands. Two small groups of
islands, the Bashees and Babuyanes, have also afforded a partial connection
with the continent by way of Formosa. It is evident that the Philippines
once formed part of the great Malayan extension of Asia, but that they were
separated considerably earlier than Java; and having been since greatly
isolated and much broken up by volcanic disturbances, their species ha