276 GLOSSARY. 



the Himalaya range ?, Northern China, Japan, and the Aleutian 

 Islands. Area about, 14,000,000 square miles. (2) Ethiopian 

 Region Africa south of the Atlas range (south of- the Sahara 

 would have been better), Madagascar, Bourbon, Mauritius, 

 Socotra, and probably Arabia (?) up to the Persian Gulf. Area 

 about 12,000,000 square miles. (3) Indian Region India and 

 Asia generally south of the Himalayas, Ceylon, Burmah, Ma- 

 lacca, and Southern China, Philippines, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, 

 and adjacent islands. Area "perhaps " 4,000,000 square miles. 

 (4) Australian Region Papua and adjacent islands, Australia, 

 Tasmania, and Pacific islands. Area "perhaps" 3,000,000 

 square miles. (5) Nearctic Region Greenland and North 

 America down to centre of Mexico. Area " perhaps " 6,500,000 

 square miles. (6) Neotropical Region West-India Islands, 

 Southern Mexico, Central America, and whole of S. America, 

 Galapagos Islands, Falkland Islands. Area about 5,500,000 

 square miles. The weak points of this scheme appear to be 

 the separation of Papua or New Guinea from the Indian archi- 

 pelago, and the omission of New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. 

 These, as well as Madagascar and Japan, are " satellite " pro- 

 vinces, having too many endemic forms to be included in the 

 "regions" in which they are geographically situated. The 

 Vertebrata, Prof. Huxley thinks, " are so distributed at the 

 present day as to mark out four great areas or provinces of dis- 

 tribution." " These are : 1. The Arctogeeal, including North 

 America, Europe, Africa, and Asia as far as Wallace's line, or 

 the boundary between the Indian and Papuan divisions of the 

 Indian archipelago. 2. The Austrocolumbian, comprising all 

 the American continent south of Mexico. 3. The Australian, 

 from Wallace's line to Tasmania. 4. The Sovozelanian, in- 

 cluding the islands of New Zealand." The late Andrew 

 Murray maintained that " all the Coleoptera in the world are 

 referable to one or the other of three great stirpes." " These 

 are: 1, the Indo- African stirps ; 2, the Brazilian stirps; and 

 3, ' the microtypal stirps.' " The first included the Indian 

 archipelago and New Guinea ; " the Brazilian stirps inhabits 

 South and Central America east of the Andes and north of the 

 river Plate." In the microtypal stirps he included Europe, 

 Asia north of the Himalayas, North America, Peru, Chili, New 

 Zealand, Australia, &c. He held that the fauna of one class 

 was not to be judged by the fauna of another, and that the 

 peculiarities of geographical distribution were only to be ac- 

 counted for on the supposition of " continuity of soil at some 

 former period." (Proc. Linn. Soc., Zool. xi. 1 et seq.) 





