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

392 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part in.and among prevalent Oriental groups, Pycnonotidse (bulbuls),Phyllornithidse (green bulbuls), and Megalsemidse (barbets) arefamilies whose absence is significant. Nine families are peculiarto the region, or only just pass its limits in the case of singlespecies. These are Paridiseidse (paradise-birds), Meliphagidse(honey-suckers),Menuridse (lyre-birds), Atrichidae (scrub-birds),Cacatuidas (cockatoos), Platycercidse (broad-tailed and grassparoquets),Trichoglossidse (brush-tongued paroquets, Megapodiidae(mound-makers), and Casuariidae (cassowaries).There arealso eight very characteristic families, of which four,—Pachycephalias(thick-headed shrikes), Campephagidse (caterpillarshrikes), Dicseidae (flower-peckers), and Artamidae (swallowshrikes)—arefeebly represented elsewhere, while the other four—Ploceidae (weaver-finches), Alcsedinidse (kingfishers), Poclargidae(frog-mouths), and Columbidse(pigeons)—although widely distributed,are here unusually abundant and varied, and (exceptin the case of the Ploceidse) better represented in the Australianthan in any other region.Of all these the Meliphagidse (honeysuckers)are the most peculiarly and characteristically Australian.This family abounds in genera and species ;it extends into everypart of the region from Celebes and Lombock on the west, tothe Sandwich Islands, Marquesas, and New Zealand on the east,while not a single species overpasses its limits, with the exceptionof one {Ptilotis lirribata) which abounds in all the islands ofthe Timorese group, and has crossed the narrow strait fromLombock to Baly ; but this can hardly be considered to impugnthe otherwise striking fact of wide diffusion combined withstrict limitation, which characterizes it.This family is the moreimportant, because, like the Trichoglossida3 or brush-tonguedparoquets, it seems to have been developed in co-ordination withthat wealth of nectariferousflowering shrubs and trees which isone of the marked features of Australian vegetation.It probablyoriginated in the extensive land-area of Australia itself, andthence spread into all the tributary islands, where it has becomevariously modified, yet always in such close adaptation to theother great features of the Australian fauna, that it seems unableto maintain itself when subject to the competition of the more