SCLATEE ON THE ZOOLOGY OP NEW GTJINEA. 149 



to the latter of the two papers cited above. And it need here 

 only, be remarked that in the condition of the circulatory system, 

 this remarkable genus would appear to differ widely from the 

 Stomapod type and very closely to resemble the Decapoda. — 



[a. B.] 



On the Zoology of "N'ew Gruinea. 

 By Philip Lutlet Sclatee, M.A., P.L.S. &c. 



[Received December 3, 1857. Read December 17, 1857.] 



In pointing out what appear to me to be the principal zoological 

 divisions of the earth's surface (as I attempted to do in the course 

 of the observations on the general geographical distribution of 

 birds which I made before the Linnean Society last summer), it 

 was not without some hesitation that I placed New Gruinea in the 

 same region as Australia. Since that time I have paid some atten- 

 tion to what is known of the zoology of this interesting country, 

 and have had an opportunity of revisiting the museums of Paris 

 and Leyden, where the best series of its animals are to be found. 

 From what I have thus observed, and from the writings of the 

 Dutch naturalists on the subject, I am now quite persuaded that, 

 while Borneo, Java and Sumatra are inseparably allied to the South- 

 Asiatic fauna, Amboyna, Timor, Gilolo, New Guinea and probably 

 Celebes, with some of the other Eastern islands, are properly ap- 

 pertinent to the same primary zoological region as Australia. The 

 straits of Macassar are perhaps the determining line separating 

 these two regions, the island of Lombok (which lies due south of 

 them) being (as Mr. Wallace's investigations have shown) in some 

 respects debateable ground between them. 



With the view of supplying materials towards a more perfect 

 understanding of the distribution of organized life in these coun- 

 tries, I have drawn up the following summary of the mammalia 

 and birds of New. Guinea, as far as the scattered and scanty 

 notices on this subject met with among the writings of different 

 travellers and naturalists have enabled me to do so. 



The first explorer of New Guinea who has left us any record of 

 his scientific proceedings is Sonnerat, who during his celebrated 

 voyage in the year 1771 collected a considerable number of plants 

 and birds, principally on the island of Jobie in the Bay of Geelvink, 

 of which he afterwards gave an account in his ' Voyage a la Nou- 

 velle Guinee,' published in Paris in 1776. Some of the species 



