152 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



prehending the archipelagos of the Pacific, with the exception 

 of those belonging to the Columbian Region. 12 A, March 

 30, 428. 



PECULIARITIES OF NEW ZEALAND ZOOLOGY. 



Dr. Sclater, the secretary of the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don, in a paper upon the peculiarities of the vertebrate fauna 

 of New Zealand, remarks that these consist, first, in the ab- 

 sence of all mammals excepting two species of bats ; second, 

 the presence of numerous forms of birds not known elsewhere, 

 such as the Apteryx^ and others ; third, the absence of rep- 

 tiles, excepting two genera of lizards, and a third form of 

 lizard-like animal, considered by Dr. Gunther to constitute a 

 special order ; fourth, the absence of frogs, toads, and sala- 

 manders, with the exception of one sj)ecies of the first-men- 

 tioned genus ; fifth, a scarcity of fresh-water fishes, which are 

 allied partly to the Australian and partly to antarctic Amer- 

 ican forms ; and, sixth, the recent presence of a peculiar fam- 

 ily (Dinornis) of gigantic birds of the ostrich group, now ex- 

 tinct, 12 A, Jan. 5, 192. 



FAUNAL PROVINCES OF THE WEST COAST OF AMERICA. 



Iii the course of a critical comparison of the marine fauna? 

 of the east and west coasts of America, Professor Verrill takes 

 occasion to mark out what he considers to be the principal 

 zoological provinces of Western America. Taken in the or- 

 der of his enumeration, he commences with what he calls the 

 Sitchian Province, corresponding with the Syrtensian Prov- 

 ince of the Atlantic coast, and extending from the termina- 

 tion of the arctic or circumpolar fauna to the coast of Oregon. 

 The second, or Oregonian Province, includes the Puget Sound 

 coast, and that of Oregon to Cape Mendocino, and represents 

 the Acadian fauna on the east coast of America. The third, 

 or the Californian Province, reaches from Cape Mendocino 

 to Santa Barbara, and perhaps farther southward, and appar- 

 ently corresponds to the Virginian fauna on the Atlantic. 

 The precise southern extension of this fauna is not entirely 

 worked out, there being possibly two other provinces, the 

 Viegoan and Sonoran, as indicated by Professor Dana, filling 

 up the gap reaching to the Panaman Province. This in- 

 cludes the Gulf of California, and extends from Margarita 



