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Vertebrate fauna of Wallacea and surrounds
17 Malayan forest
The following excerpt describing some of the characteristic birds of the Oriental region is from Wallace (1876) The Geographical Distribution of Animals. Chapter XII. The Oriental Region, p. 339:
“Conspicuous in the foreground is the huge Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), one of the most characteristic birds of the Malayan forests, the flapping of whose wings, as it violently beats the air to support its heavy body, may be heard a mile off. On the ground behind, is the Argus pheasant (Argusianus giganteus) … The long-tailed bird on the right is one of the Drongo-shrikes (Bhringa remifer), whose long bare tail-feathers, with an oar-like web at the end, and blue-black glossy plumage, render it a very attractive object as it flies after its insect prey. On the left is another singular bird the great Broad-bill (Corydon sumatranus), with dull and sombre plumage, but with a beak more like that of a boat-bill than of a fruit-eating passerine bird. Over all, the white-handed Gibbon (Hylobatcs lar) swings and gambols among the topmost branches of the forest.”
Plate IX, A Malayan Forest with some of its peculiar Birds. From The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876).
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