142 SCLATEB ON THE GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OP ATES. 



well acquainted with the ornithology of that continent ; but there 

 still remains New Gluinea and the multitudinous adjacent islands, 

 which doubtless contain numbers of species as yet unknown to 

 science. Mr. Gould, in his ' Birds of Australia,' enumerates — 



1. Accipitres 36> 



2. Passeres 311 ' 



3. Scansores 36 



4. Columbffi .... 23 



5. GalUn^ 16 



6. Struthiones , . . . 1 



7. Grallse 78 



8. Anseres 99. 



1^600. 



in all 600 species. 



The most characteristic forms of this region are perhaps the 

 Faradiseidcd and U^imachidcs (both peculiar to it) ; the Meliplia- 

 gidcB, one or two genera only of which are found externally, and 

 of which between 60 and 70 species occur in Australia alone ; the . 

 genera Calyj^torhynchus, Microglossa, Trichoglossus, Platycercus, 

 Nestor^ Strigops, and many other forms amongst the Fsittaddce, 

 besides a vast number of others. 



Taking 3,000,000 of square miles as the amount of dry land in 

 this region, and allowing 1000 species as peculiar to it, we have 

 one species to every 3000 square miles, shomng us that this is 

 little inferior to the middle Palseotropical Kegion in intensity of 

 species. 



V. Ne ARCTIC or North- Amebic AN Eegion {Regio Nearcticd). 



'Extent. — Greenland and North America down to centre of 

 Mexico — area of perhaps 6,500,000 square miles. 



Characteristic forms. — Trochilus^ Sialia, Toxostoma, Icteria, 

 Vireo, Mniotiltince, Chamcea, Certhia, Sitta, Neocorys, Calamospisa^ 

 Zonotrichia, FicicorvuSf Gymnocitta, Meleagris. 



As is the case in the Old "World, most of the genera belonging 

 to the northern part of the New World are better represented in 

 its tropical than in its temperate portions. Northern America, 

 however, produces Sylvicolce and ZonotricMce in much greater 

 abundance than southern America, and these genera (which are 

 analogous to the Sylviince and Emherizce of the Old World) are 

 perhaps its most ordinary characteristic forms, I have already 



