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

—;204 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part in.one to East Africa, while twenty-seven are peculiar to Palestine.It is evident therefore that an unusual number of East Africanbirds have extended their range to this congenial district, butmost of these are desert species and hardly true Ethiopians,and do not much interfere with the general Palsearctic characterof the whole assemblage.As an illustration of how wide-spreadare many of the Palsearctic forms, we may add, that seventyninespecies of land birds and fifty-five of water birds, are commonto Palestine and Britain. The Oriental and Ethiopiangenera Pycnonotus and Ncctarinea are found here, while Bcssornisand Dromolcca are characteristically Ethiopian. Almost all theother genera are Palsearctic.Persia is another remote regiongenerally associated with theidea of Oriental and almost tropical forms, but which yet undoubtedlybelongs to the Palsearctic region. Mr. Blanford's recentcollections in this country, with other interestinginformation, issummarised in Mr. Elwes's paper on the " Geographical Distributionof Asiatic Birds " (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 647). No lessthan 127 species are found also in Europe, and thirty-sevenothers belong to European genera ; seven are allied to birds ofCentral Asia or Siberia, and fifteen to those of North-East Africa,while only three are purely of Indian affinities. This shows apreponderance of nearly nine-tenths of Palsearcticforms, whichis fully as much as can be expected in any country near thelimits of a great region.Reptiles and Amphibia.—The climatal conditions being heremore favourable to these groups, and the genera being often oflimited range, we find some peculiar, and several very interestingforms.Fvhinechis, a genus of Colubrine snakes, is found only inSouth Europe ; Trogonophis, one of the Amphisbsenianscurious snake-like lizards—is known only from North AfricaPsammosaurus, belonging to the water lizards (Varanidse) isfound in North Africa and North-West India ;a genus of Lacertidse, is peculiar to South Europe ;Psammodromus,Hyalosaurus,belonging to the family Zonuridre, is a lizard of especial interest,as it inhabits North Africa while its nearest ally is theOpliisawrus or " glass snake " of North America ; the family of