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

—450 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi.New Zealand, there would have been formed an island-continentnot much inferior in extent to Australia itself.New Zealand is wholly situated in the warmer portion ofthe Temperate zone, and enjoys an exceptionally mild andequable climate. It has abundant moisture, and thus comeswithin the limits of the South-Temperate forest zone ; and thisleads to its productions often resembling those of the tropical,but moist and wooded, islands of thePacific, rather than thoseof the temperate, but arid and scantily wooded plains of Australia.The two islands of New Zealand are about the sameextent (approximately) as the British Isles, but the difference inthe general features of their natural history is very great.Thereare, in the former, no mammalia, less than half as many birds,very few reptiles and fresh-water fishes, and an excessive andmost unintelligible poverty of insects; yet, considering thesituation of the islands and their evidently long-continuedisolation, the wonder rather is that their fauna is so variedand interesting as it is found to be. Our knowledge of thisfauna, though no doubt far from complete, is sufficientlyample ; and it will be well to give a pretty full account ofit, in order to see what conclusions may be drawn as to itsorigin.Mammalia.—The only mammals positivelyknown as indigenousto New Zealand are two bats, both peculiar to it,Scotophiliatuberculatus and Mystadna tuberculata. The former isallied to Australian forms ;the latter is more interesting, asbeing a peculiar genus of the family Noctilionidae, which doesnot exist in Australia ; and in having decided resemblances tothe Phyllostomidse of South America, so that it may almost beconsidered to be a connecting link between the two families.forest rat is said to have once abounded on the islands, and tohave been used for food by the natives ; but there is much doubtas to what it really was, and whether it was not an introducedspecies. The seals are wide-spread antarctic forms which haveno geographical significance.Birds.—About 145 species of birds are natives of New Zealand,of which 88 are waders or aquatics, leaving 57 land-birds belong-A