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

chap, xiii.] THE AUSTRALIAN REGION. 449otherwise peculiar American family, occurring so far acrossPacific.theSnakes are much less abundant, only four genera being represented,one of them marine. They are, Anoplodipsas, a peculiargenus of Amblycephalidse from New Caledonia; Enygrus, agenus of Pythonidse from the Fiji Islands ; Ogmodon, a peculiargenus of Elapidae, also from the Fiji Islands, but ranging toPapua and the Moluccas ;and Platurus, a wide-spread genus ofsea-snakes (Hydrophidre). In the more remote Sandwich andSociety Islands there appear to be no snakes. This accordswith our conclusion that lizards have some special means ofdispersal over the ocean which detracts from their value asindicating zoo-geographical affinities ;which is further provedby the marvellous range of a single species (referred to above)from Australia tothe Sandwich Islands.A species of Hyla is said to inhabit the New Hebrides, andseveral species of Platymantis (tree-frogs) are found in the FijiIslands ; but otherwise the Amphibians appear to be unrepresentedin the sub-region, though they will most likely be foundin so large an island as New Caledonia.From the foregoing sketch, it appears, that although thereptiles present some special features, they agree on the wholewith the birds, in showing, that the islands of Polynesiaall belong to the Australian region, and that in the Fiji Islandsis to be found the fullest development of their peculiarfauna.IV. New Zealand Sub-region.The islands of New Zealand are more completely oceanicthan any other extensive tract of land, being about 1,200miles from Australia and nearly the same distance from NewCaledonia and the Friendly Isles. There are, however, severalislets scattered around, whose productions show that theybelong to the same sub-region ;—the principal being, NorfolkIsland, Lord Howe's Island, and the Kermadec Isles, on thenorth ; Chatham Island on the east ; the Auckland and MacquarieIsles on the south ;—and if these were once joined to