Vol. V. 



1905 



J RevieivSi. Q 5 



Association (B}' authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, 

 Welhngton, 1905, 68 pp.) The title of the address is " The Zoo- 

 geographical Relations of the Ornis of the Various Sub-Regions of 

 the ' Australian Region,' with the Geographical Distribution of 

 the Principal Genera Therein." 



The "Australian Region" is that so classified by Dr. A. R. 

 Wallace in his work on " The Distribution of Animals." It in- 

 cludes four sub-regions — Australasia (Australia and Tasmania), 

 Austro-INIalaya (New Guinea, &c.), Polynesia, and New Zealand. 

 The first part of the address is a description of each of these four 

 sub-regions ornithologically considered. Each has, as is shown, its 

 specialized forms — Australasia its Lyre-Birds, Mound-raisers, Emus, 

 and Plain- Wanderer ; Austro-Malaya its Birds of Paradise, Crowned 

 Pigeons, and Long-tailed Kingfishers ; Polynesia the strange Pigeon 

 {Gnathodon), of Samoa, and the Kagu {Rhino chet us), of New Cale- 

 donia* ; New Zealand its peculiar Starling (Heteralocha), aberrant 

 Pitta {Xeniciis), Sheep-killing Parrot (Nestor), and the Kiwi 

 (Apteryx). 



New Guinea is the focus of the Austro-Malayan sub-region. 

 Oriental elements enter in Celebes and Timor, each of which forms, 

 as it were, the arresting point for many Indian, Indo-Chinese, and 

 Indo-Malayan forms on their way towards Australia ; but Celebes, 

 in spite of its peculiarities, has greater affinity with our own region 

 than with the Oriental, hence we find it included by Wallace in 

 the former. The dividing line is not so arbitrary as it looks in the 

 map, for the strait between Bali and Lombok. through which the 

 line of severance between the Oriental and Austro-Malayan regions 

 runs, is very deep, and forms a real natural division. 



New Guinea's relation to Australia is closest in the Passeriform 

 birds, naturally enough, as that is the largest order, but it would 

 be still closer were it not that our tropical vegetation in the north 

 is confined to but a small area. Australia once stretched out nearer 

 the island of Timor than it does now, and the existing relationship 

 is to be attributed to that time, for now the broad Arafura Sea 

 rolls between and stops Oriental forms coming on from Timor to us. 



Colonel Legge divides the Polynesian sub-region into five groups — 

 (i) New Caledonia and neighbouring islands ; (2) Fiji and Samoa ; 

 (3) the Societies, Marquesas, and Low Archipelago ; (4) the 

 Carolines, Marshalls, and Ladrones ; (5) the Sandwich Islands ; 



* It is a popular error to suppose that the Kagu is nocturnal in its habits. Mr. 

 H. E. Finckh, of Sydney, in writing to the editors regarding his birds in captivity, 

 states : — " My four Kagus go to roost as soon as it is dark, not at dusk. Between 

 dusk and dark they eat up any scraps of meat which may be about, which proves 

 that they look for their food when the worms come out at the evening. .Strange to 

 say, their egg is also always laid just when the dusk has changed into night. They 

 sleep very soundly. I often go into their run at night ; they never wake then, unless 

 disturbed, and I have often been surprised that they do not wake easier. I have 

 even removed their egg from under the sleeping bird without awaking the latter. I 

 have never found my birds about at night, and I always give them a final look before 

 I retire myself. I also frequently find them asleep early in the mornings, should I 

 hapjien to be up just before flaybreak, and even the brightest moonlight nights do 

 not alter matters." 



