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

;178 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi.very characteristic and almost exclusively confined to it, are initalics. The number prefixed to each family corresponds tothat of the series of families in the Fourth Part of this work,so that if further information is required it can be readilyreferred to without consulting the index. Names inclosed inparentheses—( . . . ) thus—indicate families which only justenter a region from an adjacent one, to which they properlybelong. The eye is thus directed to the more, and the less importantfamilies ;and a considerable amount of information asto the general features of the zoology of the region, isconveyedin the easiest manner.The tables of genera of Mammalia and Birds, are arranged ona somewhat different plan. Each genus is given under itsFamily and Order, and they follow in thesame succession in allthe tables. The number of species of each genus, inhabitingbut in manythe region, is given as nearly as can be ascertained ;cases this can only be a general approximation.of the genera within the region, isThe distributionthen given with some detailand, lastly, the range of the genus beyond the region is givenin general terms, the words " Oriental," " Ethiopian," &c, beingused for brevity, to indicate that the genus occurs over a considerablepart of such regions. Genera which are restricted tothe region (or which are very characteristic of it though justtransgressing its limits) are given in italics ;while those whichonly just enter the region from another to which they reallybelong, are enclosed in parentheses— ( . . . ) thus. The generaare here numbered consecutively, in order that the number ofgenera in each family or each order, in the region, may be readilyascertained (by one process of subtraction), and thus comparisonsmade with other regions or with any other area. As thetables of birds would be swelled to an inconvenient length bythe insertion in each region of all the genera of Waders andAquatics, most of which have a very wide range and wouldhave to be repeated in several or all the regions, these havebeen omitted ; but a list has been given of such of the generaas are peculiar to, or highly characteristic of each region.As this is the first time that any such extensive tables of