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

chap, x.] THE PAL^ARCTIC REGION. 203Dipus, Lepus, and Mus. It is admitted that, as regards everyother group of animals, North Africa is Palaearctic, and theabove enumeration shows that even in Mammalia, the intermixtureof what are now true Ethiopian types is altogetherinsignificant. It must be remembered, also, that the lioninhabited Greece even in historic times, while large carnivorawere contemporary with man all over Central Europe.Birds.—So many of the European birds migrate over largeportions of the region, and so many others have a wide permanentrange, that we cannot expect to find more than a fewgenera, consisting of one or two species, each, confined to a subregion;and such appear to be, Lusciniola and Pyrophthalma,genera of Sylviidae. But many are characteristic of this, ascompared with other Palsearctic sub-regions ; such as, Bradyptetus,Aedon, Dromolcea, and Cercomela, among Sylviidae; Crateropusand Malacocercus, among Timaliidse ; Teloplionus amongLaniidse ; Certhilauda and Mirafra among larks ; Pastor amongstarlings ; Upupa, the hoopoe ; Halycon and Ceryle amongkingfishers; Turnix and Caccabis among Gallinae, and thepheasant as an indigenous bird ;together with Gyps, Vultur andNeophron, genera of vultures. In addition to these, almost allour summer migrants spend their winter in some part of thisfavoured land, mostly in North Africa, together with manyspecies of Central Europe that rarely or never visit us. Itfollows, that a large proportion of all the birds of Europe andWestern Asia are to be found in this sub-region, as will be seenby referring to the list of the genera of the region. Palestineis one of the remote portions of this region which has beenwell explored by Canon Tristram, and it may be interesting togive his summary of the range of the birds. We must bearin mind that the great depression of the Dead Sea has a tropicalclimate, which accounts for the presence here only, of such atropical form as the sun- bird (Nectarinea osea).The total number of the birds of Palestine is 322, and ofthese no less than 260 are European, at once settling the questionof the general affinities of the fauna.Of the remainder elevenbelong to North and East Asia, four to the Eed Sea, and thirty-