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

—chap, xiii.] THE AUSTRALIAN REGION. 453part of Polynesia, distances of more than 1,000 miles ! Thesefacts seem, however, to have been accepted on insufficient evidenceand to be in themselves extremely improbable. It is observedthat the cuckoos appear annually in certain districts and againdisappear ;but their course does not seem to have been traced,still less have they ever been actually seen arriving or departingacross the ocean. In a country which has still such wide tractsof unsettled land, it is very possible that the birds in questionmay only move from one part of the islands to another.Islets of the New Zealand Sub-region.We will here notice the smaller islands belonging to the subregion,as it ischiefly their birds that possess any interest.Norfolk Island.—The land-birds recorded from this islandamount to 15 species, of which 8 are Australian, viz. : Climacterisscandens, Symmorphus leucopygius, Zosterops tenuirostris andZ. albogularis, Halcyon sanctus, Platycercus pennanti, Garpophagaspadicea, Phapspicata and P. chalcoptera. Of the peculiarspecies three belong to Australian genera ; Petroica, Gerygone, andRhipidura ; one to a cosmopolitan genus, Turdus. So far theaffinity seems to be all Australian, and there remain only threebirds which ally this island to New Zealand,Gyanoramphus rayneri, and Notornis alba.Nestor productus,The former inhabitedthe small Phillip Island (close to Norfolk Island) but is now extinct.Being a typical New Zealand genus, quite incapable of flyingacross the sea, its presence necessitates some former connexionbetween the two islands, and it is therefore perhaps of moreweight than all the Australian genera and species, which are birdscapable of long flights. The Cyanoramphus is allied to a NewZealand broad-tailed parroquet. The Notornis alba is extinct,but two specimens exist in museums, and it is even a strongercase than the Nestor, as showing a former approximation or unionof this island with New Zealand. A beautiful figure of thisbird is given in the Ibis for 1873.Lord Howe's Island.—This small island, situated half-waybetween Australia and Norfolk Island, is interesting, as containinga peculiar species of the New Zealand genus Ocydromus, or