40 DISTRIBUTION OF LACERTILIA. [CH. I 



continent has altogether fourteen peculiar genera. The 

 Oriental region which comes next has fifteen peculiar 

 genera. It may be thought that the Oriental region ought 

 to have been placed first ; but it seems less important than 

 the Neotropical, inasmuch as the latter region has a larger 

 number of peculiar families. The resemblances shown 

 between South America and Madagascar (in the case of the 

 genus Podocnemis) is noteworthy, and has been commented 

 upon elsewhere. The Australian region is poor in tor- 

 toises ; it has only three genera, of which, however, one is 

 the type of a special family, confined to New Guinea. 

 Africa is also poor ; it has but seven peculiar genera, of 

 which several range also into Madagascar, and one is 

 limited to that island. 



The group also shows some remarkable instances of 

 discontinuous distribution. The Chelydidse are limited to 

 the Neotropical and Australian regions ; but, as Mr Blanford 

 points out, this is to be possibly explained by the fact that 

 members of this family are met with in a fossil condition 

 in Europe. It will have been noticed that they are 

 totally absent from New Zealand. 



Distribution of Lizards. 



In this group again the facts have been collected by 

 Mr Boulenger in his British Museum catalogue. The 

 genus Hatteria is excluded from the Lacertilia ; the facts 

 of its distribution have been already considered. The 

 true Lizards contain altogether, according to Mr Boulenger, 

 twenty families. Of these only two approach to being 

 cosmopolite, the Geckotidse and Scincidse ; but the former 



