GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 327 



group of islands. There is one peculiar Family, Todidse, already- 

 mentioned, and that consists of but a single genus with 4 or 

 perhaps 5 species — one limited to each of the large islands, Cuba, 

 Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Porto Rico — ^the fifth (if it exists) being 

 from an unknown locality.^ Especially worthy of record is the * . , 

 presence of 2 species or even genera of TiiOGON — Prionotelts peculiar v ' ^"'^■^"i'^ 

 to Cuba, and Temnotrogon (which exhibits a remarkable similarity 

 to the African Hapaloclerma) peculiar to Hispaniola. Another of 

 many singular facts that might be noticed did space admit is that 

 while Jamaica has no Kestrel at all (its place there being taken, in 

 winter at least, by the American form of Merlin) Cuba possesses in 

 addition to one widely-ranging species of the genus Tinnunculus,^ 

 a second that is peculiar to it, and this last, T. qjarverioides, offers 

 a great resemblance to the species, T. gracilis, which is peculiar to 

 the Seychelles, almost at its antipodes.^ Speculation as to the 

 former history of the Antilles would be at present vain. There 

 is no portion of the world that has been so long colonized by 

 Europeans, of which the existing Fauna is so little known, and 

 though of late as regards the British possessions something more 

 than ever had been done has been attempted, the results do not 

 justify more than the belief, which the facts already given may 

 indicate, that there must have been no ordinary amount of geo- 

 logical disturbance to account for the present distribution of the 

 Fauna.* 



With this must end the account here to be given of the several 

 Notogaean Eegions, since at present we have few means of deter- 

 mining the northern limits of the Neotropical Avifauna, nor k ow 



^ A bird of this group, or name at any rate, was one of tliose asserted by 

 Ledru {Voyage &c. ii. p. 39. Paris: 1810) to have formerly inhabited St. 

 Thomas in the Antilles {cf. Extermination, p. 219). 



^ I am unable to agree with the view taken {Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. pp. 437-442) 

 as to splitting up the T. sparverius into several local species or forms, though it 

 was approved by so good an authority as the late Mr. Gurney. 



^ This fact is worth consideration relatively to the similarity or asserted aflBnity 

 between the two Mammalian genera, Solenodon of the Antilles and Centctes, with 

 its allies, of Madagascar, while a splendid genus of Lepidoptera, Uranidia or 

 Urania, which has two species peculiar to Cuba and one to Jamaica, is said to 

 have its nearest ally in Chrysiridia of the grand African island and of Zanzibar. 



* The Neotropical Avifauna is said to be the richest in the world, and the 

 literature relating to it is no less abundant. While the papers in journals are 

 almost countless, it would be impossible here to give the titles of even the 

 separately-published works. The following list contains the names of the chief 

 authors of the latter : — Azara, Burmeister, Castelnau, Cory, d'Orbigny, Gay, 

 Godman, Gosse, Gundlach, Hernandez, Hudson, Lembeye, Leotaud, Marcgrave, 

 Martins, (Prince) Maximilian (of Wied), Molina, Nierenberg, Oustalet, von Pel- 

 zeln, de Philippi, Poey, de la Sagra, Salvin, Sclater, Sloane, Spix, Taczanowski, 

 Tschudi. 



