ZOO-GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS 905 



changes of the earth and its cHmate, and (6) the bionomic 

 relations. 



Zoo-geographical regions. — We shall simply quote a 

 paragraph from Professor Heilprin's work, The Geographi- 

 cal and Geological Distribution of Animals (Internat. Sci. 

 Series. London, 1887), a very valuable book for the 

 student, especially as it considers distribution in space 

 and time together. 



" By most naturalists (Wallace, Sclater, and others) the 

 terrestrial portion of the earth's surface is recognised as 

 consisting of six primary zoological regions, which corre- 

 spond in considerable part with the continental masses of 

 geographers. These six regions are — 



" I. The P«/<^«7T/iV:, which comprises Europe, temperate 

 Asia (with Japan), and Africa north of the Atlas Moun- 

 tains ; also Iceland, and the numerous oceanic islands of 

 the North Atlantic ; 



"2. The Ethiopian, embracing all of Africa south of the 

 Atlas Mountains, the southern portion of the Arabian 

 Peninsula, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands, and 

 which, consequently, nearly coincides with the Africa of 

 geographers ; 



" 3. The Oriental or Indian, which embraces India south 

 of the Himalayas, Farther India, Southern China, Sumatra, 

 Java, Bali, Borneo, and the Philippines ; 



" 4. The Australian, comprising the continent of 

 Australia, with Papua or New Guinea, Celebes, Lombok, 

 and the numerous islands of the Pacific ; 



" 5. The Nearctic, which embraces Greenland, and the 

 greater portion of the continent of North America (ex- 

 cluding Mexico) ; 



" 6. The Neotropical, corresponding to the continent of 

 South America, with Central America, the West Indies, 

 and the greater portion of Mexico." 



Professor Heilprin makes several modifications on this 

 scheme of distribution : (a) uniting Palaearctic and 

 Nearctic in one Holarctic realm ; {b) establishing a special 

 Polynesian realm for the scattered island groups of the 

 Pacific ; and {c) defining three transition regions^ — (i) 

 around the Mediterranean, intermediate between Palae- 

 arctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental, (2) Lower California 



