SCLA.TER ON THE GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF AVES. 



135 



hardly be fairly ascertained, until the ornithology of Central Asia 

 is much better worked out than is at present the case. While 

 among the birds of the Himalayas we find many striking instances 

 of the recurrence of European types, there is no doubt that the 

 ornithology of the Indian Peninsula and the rest of Southern 

 Asia, below the 30th parallel, is quite different from it. 



Africa, north of the Atlas, along the southern shores of the 

 Mediterranean, again appears to belong to Europe zoologically, 

 and not to the continent to which it is physically joined. Such 

 species of birds, foreign to Europe, as are found in Algeria and 

 Morocco, are not usually connected with true African forms, but 

 are again slightly modified representatives of Europaeo-Asiatic 

 species. 



Such are the N. African species. 

 Garrulus cervicalis. 

 Pica mauritanica. 

 Fringilla spodiogenia. 

 Parus ultramarinus. 

 Picus numidicus. 



Representatives of the European. 

 Garrulus cristatus. 

 Pica caudata. 

 Fringilla eaelebs. 

 Parus cajruleus. 

 Picus major. 



On the whole, therefore, I think we may consider Africa, north 

 of the Atlas, Europe and Northern Asia, to form one primary 

 zoological division of the earth's surface, for which the name 

 Palaearctic or Northern Palaeogean Region would be best ap- 

 plicable. 



The great continent of Africa will form a second well-marked 

 division, after cutting off" the slice north of the Atlas, but including 

 Madagascar (where the African type appears to have reached the 

 height of its peculiar development) and "Western Arabia, to the 

 Persian Grulf ; for in this latter region, so far as our information 

 goes, the African type seems to predominate over the Indian. 

 Although there are genera of Passeres common to Africa and 

 India, and even a few species, yet there can be no question as to 

 the generally dissimilar character of the Avi-faunce of these two 

 countries. This second African division may be called the ^Ethio- 

 pian or Western Palseotropical Eegion. 



Another tropical region of the Old World seems to be constituted 

 by Southern Asia and the islands of the Indian Archipelago. The 

 Philippines, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, certainly belong to this 

 division, but it is of course not yet possible to decide where the 

 line runs which divides the Indian zoology from the Australian. 

 New Guinea presents probably only a more exaggerated produc- 



