248 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
eaters (Campophagide), the Flower-peckers (Diceide), and 
the Swallow-shrikes (Artamide), feebly represented  else- 
where, are most numerous here, while other groups of wide 
distribution are here also most variously and richly developed. 
Amongst these are the Weaver-finches, those exaggerated Goat- 
suckers called ‘‘ frog-mouths ” or ‘* more-porks” (Podargide), the 
Pigeons, and the Kingfishers. 
Two fifths of the genera of Pigeons are found in this region, 
as well as the most beautiful and remarkable forms. Amongst 
the latter is the Crowned Pigeon (Goura) and Didunculus. The 
cosmopolitan family of Kingfishers, which includes some 
nineteen genera, has no less than ten of them peculiar to the 
Australian region. 
The remarkable family of Honey-suckers (Meliphagide) is 
very characteristic of the region, over the whole of which it 
ranges, abounding in genera and species; and the peculiar 
Broad-tailed Parrakeets adorn it by thier gorgeous plumage. 
But the absence of other forms from the Australian region 1s 
no less remarkable. Thus there are no Pheasants *, which are 
so remarkably characteristic of the adjacent Indian region, 
while the specially Oriental Green Bulbuls (Chloropsis) are 
also wanting, and the same is the case with the elsewhere 
widespread Vultures (Vulturide) and Barbets (Megalemide), 
The generally abundant Thrushes (Vurdide) are few, while of 
the three hundred species of Woodpeckers (Picide) only four or 
five penetrate from the Indian region as far as Lombock, 
Celebes, and very few Pycnonotide reach the Moluccas. 
The Papuan subregion is characterized especially by its 
Birds of Paradise, which (save those in Australia) are not 
found out of it. The northern and western parts of the sub- 
region have a considerable mixture of Oriental forms. Thus 
Timor and the islands grouped round it share about thirty 
genera with the Indian region, and thirty with the continent 
of Australia. Celebes has about one hundred and fifty genera, 
with ninety peculiar species of land-birds, Of those which are 
not peculiar, about fifty-five have been estimated + to be Indian 
and twenty-two Australian. 
New Guinea, the Aru Islands, and New Britain are remark- 
able as the all but exclusive home of the Cassowaries ; one only 
* There is a Jungle-fowl in Celebes, which was perhaps introduced by 
man. 
+ By the late Lord Tweeddale, long known as Lord Walden. 
