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

;G2 DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. [part i.Mr. Sclater in his Lectures on Geographical Distribution at theZoological Gardens in May 1874), because it is absolutely withoutindigenous mammalia and very poor in all forms of life,and therefore by no means prominent or important enough toform a primary region of the earth.It may be as well here to notice what appears tobe a seriousobjection to making New Zealand, or any similar isolateddistrict, one of the great zoological regions, comparable to SouthAmerica, Australia, or Ethiopia ;which is, that its claim to thatdistinction rests on grounds which are liable to fail. It isbecause New Zealand, in addition to its negative merits, possessesthree families of birds (Apterygidse living, Dinornithidse andPalapterygidae extinct), and a peculiar lizard-like reptile,Hatteria, which has to be classed in a distinct order, Ehynchocephalina,that the rank of a Eegion is claimed for it. Butsupposing, what is not at all improbable, that other Ehynchocephalinashould be discovered in the interior of Australia orin New Guinea, and that Apterygidre or Palapterygi'dre shouldbe found to have inhabited Australia in Post-Pliocene times,(as Dinornithidae have already been proved to have done) theclaims of New Zealand would entirely fail, and it would beuniversally acknowledged to be a part of the great Australianregion. No such reversal can take place in the case of theother regions ;because they rest, not upon one or two, but upon alarge number of peculiarities, of such a nature that there isroom upon the globe for discoveries that can seriously modifythem. Even if one or two peculiar types, like Apterygidre ornoHatteria, should permanently remain characteristic of New Zealandalone, we can account for these by the extreme isolationofthe country, and the absence of enemies, which have enabledthese defenceless birds and reptiles to continue their existencejust as the isolation and protection of the caverns of Carniolahave enabled the Proteus to survive in Europe.But supposingthat the Proteus was the sole representative of an order ofBatrachia, and that two or three other equally curious andisolated forms occurred with it,no one would propose that thesecaverns or the district containing them, should form one of the