The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

chap. IV.] ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS. 77islands, which, for reasons already stated, it is not advisable totreat as a primary Zoological region. The theory of this ancientcontinent and the light it may throw on existing anomalies ofdistribution, will be more fully considered in the geographicalpart of this work.Australian Region.—Mr. Sclater's original name seems preferableto Professor Huxley's, "Austral- Asian- ; " the inconvenienceof which alteration is sufficiently shown by the factthat Mr. Blyth proposed to use the very same term as anappropriate substitute for the " Indian region " of Mr. Sclater.Australia is the great central mass of the region ; it is by far therichest in varied and highly remarkable forms of life ; and ittherefore seems in every way fitted to give a name to the regionof which it is the essential element. The limits of this regionin the Pacific are somewhat obscure, but as so many of thePacific Islands are extremely poor zoologically, this is not ofgreat importance.Sub-divisions of the Australian Region.—The firstsub-regionis the Austro-Malayan, including the islands from Celebes andLombock on the west to the Solomon Islands on the east. TheAustralian sub-region comes next, consisting of Australia andTasmania. The third, or Polynesian sub-region, will consistof all the tropical Pacific Islands, and is characterized byseveral peculiar genera of birds which are all allied to Australiantypes. The fourth, consists of New Zealand with Auckland,Chatham, and Norfolk Islands, and must be called the NewZealand sub-region.The extreme peculiaritiesof New Zealand, due no doubt toits great isolation and to its being the remains of a moreextensive land, have induced several naturalists to suggest thatit ought justly to form a Zoological region by itself. But theinconveniences of such a procedure have been already pointedout ; and when we look at its birds as a whole (they being theonly class sufficiently well represented tofound any conclusionupon) we find that the majority of them belong to Australiangenera, and where the genera are peculiar they aremost nearlyrelated to Australian types. The preservation in these islands