HI (JEOGRAPIIK Al. J)iSTRlBUTIUN 69 



]tul if lliL'ii' is sutlicieiiL mud, with decayiug vegetabli'. iiiattev, the 

 creatures survive, simply because tliey are not absolutely frozen. 

 A severe winter not infrequently kills off all the younger 

 creatures, while tlie older and more experienced hide themselves 

 more carefully and livr to propagate the race. 



Geographical Distribution. 



There is a very ably written chapter on the geographical 

 distributicni of the Amphibia by ]k)ulenger in tlie Catalogue of 

 Batraeliia Salient ia, pp. 104-118. He came to the important 

 conclusion that the geographical distribution of the ^Vm])hibia 

 agrees in general with that of the freshwater lishes. Giinther's 

 division into a Northern, Ecpiatorial, and Southern zone is 

 modified only in so far as the last two are combined into one, 

 " Tasmania and Patagonia not differing in any point regarding their 

 Frog Fauna from Australia and South America respectively." 



Boulenger recognises — 



J. Tlie Xortheni zone — (Ij Palaeai'ctic, {±) Xortli Aiuericaii, region. 

 II. Tlie Equatorial Sontlierii zone. 



^•1. Firmislernia division = ("ypriiidii I division of Giinther. 

 1. Indian region. 

 i. African region. 

 B. Airifera division = Acyprinoid division of Giintlier. 

 1. Tropical American i-egion. 

 •1. Australian region. 



In the chapter on geographical distribution in Bronn's TJiierreich, 

 V'lt/e/, Systcmatischer TJieil, p. 29 G (1893), and in my Classifica- 

 tion of Vertehrata (1898), due attention had been paid to the 

 Ampliilna as well as to the other classes of Vertebrata. It 

 will be seen in the following pages that my arrangement is well 

 applicable to the Amphibia so far as fundamental principles are 

 concerned. 



It cannot be sufficiently emphasised that any attempt to form 

 the various faunas of the diffei'ent classes of animals into one 

 scheme must necessarily be a i)etitio ]}rinci])il. The time- 

 honoured six zoo-geographical regions established by Sclater and 

 A\'allace represent fairly well the main contineiital divisions : 

 North America, South America, Africa, Australia, and the large 

 northern continental mass of the Old World, with India as a 

 tropical appendix. There is no correlation and no subordination 



