218 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



facts of the highest value in relation to the whole question of 

 zoogeography. In a general way he agrees with the conclusions 

 of Mr. Sclater^ who, as is now well known, divided the eartVs 

 surface into six great zoological regions, though Professor Huxley 

 thinks " it would be convenient to recognize a circumpolar pro- 

 vince as distinct from the Nearctic and Palsearctic regions;" 

 but on one point our two friends are diametrically opposed. 

 Mr. Sclater's primary division was that of a New World and an 

 Old ; Professor Huxley sees that the great frontier is latitudinal, 

 not longitudinal, and declares for a North World and a South — 

 ARCTOGiEA and Notog^a — illustrating the distribution of the 

 two subgroups {Alectoropodes and Peristeropodes), into which he 

 divides the Alectoromorphs by many like examples from other 

 classes of vertebrates. There can be no doubt, we think, of the 

 close resemblance in many respects between the faunas of the 

 Australian and Neotropical Regions ; and in his estimate of this 

 resemblance Professor Huxley seems to be right. We must not 

 omit to notice that in defining the boundary between the Indian 

 and Australian Regions, which he most happily suggests may 

 be called after its discoverer " Wallace^s line^^*. Professor Huxley 

 draws it so as to include both the Nicobar and Philippine Is- 

 lands — a proposal concerning the propriety of which we should 

 like to hear more. 



2. French, 



The grand work of Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards f con- 

 tinues to make good progress ; and since we last noticed it a 

 twelvemonth ago (Ibis, 1868, pp. 220-222), a dozen more 

 livraisons have reached us. Without fear of contradiction we 

 may aver that this important and deeply-interesting work stands 

 alone in the world. It is not merely the geologist or even the 

 palseontologist who will find abundunce of new facts herein re- 

 corded; the comparative anatomist, and hence the systematist, 

 must necessarily make himself acquainted with the author's 



* Cf. Ibis, 1859, pp. 440-454. 



t Recherclies anatomiques et pal^ontologiques pour servir a I'histoire 

 des Oiseaux Fossiles de la France. Par Alphonse Milne-Ed wakds. 

 Liviaisons 14-25. Paris : 1868-9. 4to. 



