GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



Resrion ; while the Kinsrfishers and Doves exhibit a wonderful variety 

 of form that is only equalled by the beauty of their coloration. 

 Of the Families which are absolutely peculiar may first be cited 

 the Casuariidse (Cassowary) and Dromxidx (EaiEu), both Ratite, 

 and together forming the Order MeC4ISTANES, and then the Rhino- 

 chetklx (Kagu), a very generalized type, consisting of a single 

 genus and species inhabiting New Caledonia, and having appar- 

 ently its nearest living ally in the Eurypyga (Sun-Bittern) of 

 South America. The Order Columhie, furnishes a very distinct and 

 monotypic Family in Didunculidge (Dodlet) and the Fsiftaci, the 

 gorgeous brush-tongued Parrots, known as Loriidx or Trichoglossidge 

 (Lory). The Families of true Fasseres are at present so ill-defined 

 that in many cases to cite them is only to mislead, but one is 

 pretty safe in relying upon the DrepanididEe (Drepanis) and Para- 

 diseidse (Bird -OF -Paradise) as good examples of peculiar groups, 

 while Australia itself furnishes the only known members of the 

 section of Passeres called " Pseudoscines " in Atrichiidx (Scrub-bird), 

 and Menuridse (Lyre-bird).^ However, the number of peculiar 

 groups of Passeres proper is too numerous to be here told, and there 

 are many beautiful and singular forms of Columhx, such as Goura, 



Leucosarcia (Wonga-wonga), Lophophaj^, Chrysoena, and others, 

 while among the most curious Land-birds, beside those already 

 named, may be specially recorded Megacephalon, Lipoa, and 

 Talegallus among the Megapodes ; Tribonyx, Pareudiastes, and 

 Hahroptila — the two last brevipennate Rails ; while Pedionomus, 

 the position of which has long been disputed, proves {Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1889, p. 310) to be one of the Turnkidx. The existence of a 

 Bustard (Eupodotis) in Australia presents a suggestive example of 

 interrupted distribution, since none of the Otididse is found nearer 

 than the Continent of India. 



The Australian Region may be taken to include 3, if not 4, 

 Subregions, to which the names of Papua, Australia proper, and 

 Polynesia may be attached, but the boundaries of the first and 

 second are not yet to be clearly defined, and the Peninsula of Cape 

 York, though a part of Australia, is by many included in the Papuan 

 Subregion. To this Subregion may be assigned, though with doubt, 

 the wonderful island of Celebes, presenting perhaps more anomalies 

 than any other in the world, and yet anomalies which, by the use of 

 strictly scientific inference (as Mr. Wallace has shewn us), maj^ 

 possibly tell a story that sounds so romantic and yet will satisfy 

 those who would judge it most severely. - 



1 The precise relation of these two forms is very doubtful, and their connexion 

 with others, Grallina for example, is. as I write, equall}' uncertain. 



- A modern work on the Birds of Australia is much needed, Gould's Handbook, 

 good for the time it appeared (1865), being in many respects obsolete, and 

 .Mr. Diggles's Ornithology of Aiistralia leaviiig much to be desired. Dr. E. P. 



