394 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [PART III. 
original habitat gives them a great advantage in the luxuriant 
islands of the Moluccas, to which they have spread. There 
they abound to a remarkable extent, and their eggs furnish a 
luxurious repast to the natives. They have also reached many 
of the smallest islets, and have spread beyond the limits of the 
region to the Philippines, and North-Western Borneo, as well 
as to the remote Nicobar Islands. 
The Platycercide, or broad-tailed paroquets, are another 
wide-spread Australian group, of weak structure but gorgeously 
coloured, ranging from the Moluccas to New Zealand and the 
Society Islands, and very characteristic of the region, to which 
they are strictly confined. The Cockatoos have not quite so 
wide a range, being confined to the Austro-Malayan and Austra- 
lian sub-regions, while one species extends into the Philippine 
Islands. The other two peculiar families are more restricted in 
their range, and will be noticed under the sub-regions to which 
they respectively belong. 
Of the characteristic families, the Pachycephalide, or thick- 
headed shrikes, are especially Australian, ranging over all the 
region, except New Zealand; while only a single species has 
spread into the Oriental, and one of doubtful affinity to the 
Ethiopian region. The Artamide, or swallow-shrikes, are also 
almost wholly confined to the region, one species only extending 
to India. They range to the Fiji Islands on the east, but only 
to Tasmania on the south. These two families must be con- 
sidered as really peculiar to Australia. The Podargide, or frog- 
mouths—large, thick-billed goat-suckers—are strange birds very 
characteristic of the Australian region, although they have 
representatives in the Oriental and Neotropical regions. Cam- 
pephagide: (caterpillar-shrikes) also abound, but they are fairly 
represented both in India and Africa, The Ploceide, or weaver- 
birds, are the finches of Australia, and present a variety of 
interesting and beautiful forms. 
We now come to the kingfishers, a cosmopolitan family of 
birds, yet so largely developed in the Australian region as to 
deserve special notice. Two-thirds of all the genera are found 
here, and no less than 10 out of the 19 genera in the family are 
