GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS OF BIRDS, 249 
being found in the island of Ceram and one in North Australia. 
Hornbills do not extend beyond the Solomon Islands. 
The Australian subregion proper has a very special Avifauna, 
for out of nearly five hundred land-birds not more than five 
and twenty at the most are found elsewhere. Amongst the 
more remarkable absolutely peculiar birds are the Lyre-bird 
and the Serub-birds (Atrichuid@), the only two species of Emeu, 
and all the Bower-birds except the genera Chlamydodera and 
Amblyornis, which are both found in New Guinea. It is also 
the exclusive home of the mound-building genus Leipoa. 
Australia has alsoa peculiar Bustard (Hupodotis). It is very 
rich in Parrots, and has some peculiar forms. 
The Polynesian subregion, though one so extremely scattered, 
has nevertheless a very uniform Avifauna, Amongst the most 
noteworthy peculiar genera found therein are the Kagu (/thino- 
chetus) in New Caledonia, and the Tooth-billed Pigeon (Didun- 
culus) in the Samoan Islands, whence also comes a most peculiar 
short-winged Water-hen ( Pareudiastes). The Sandwich Islands 
alone show any very marked distinction, possessing as they do all 
the Drepanidide. They have twenty genera of small ( Passerine) 
Land Birds. One of themis the cosmopolitan genus of Rooks and 
Crows (Corvus), but nine are absolutely peculiar to the Sandwich 
Islands. Amongst them it is to be noted that there are species 
(of the genera Acrulocercus and Chetoptila) of that specially 
Australian family the Honey-suckers. There is also a peculiar 
Coot and Goose. In Phillip Island there is, or was, a Parrot 
of the genus Nestor (N. productus), which is with this exception 
a New-Zealand genus; and a curious form of Water-hen, now 
extinct (otornis alba), seems to have been last seen alive in 
Norfolk and Lord Howe’s Islands. 
The New-Zealand subregion consists, as we have seen, princi- 
pally of New Zealand, which, till the advent of man, may be 
said to have been a very Paradise for Birds; as then they 
lorded it over the rest of the living world, having nothing to 
fear from any beast of prey, hardly any kind of Mammal having 
there existed. 
It was inhabited by the gigantic species of Dinornis, now 
extinct *, and by the extinct, forms Palapteryx and Euryapteryx. 
The most characteristic living form is the Apteryx yt, but one 
also most remarkable is the Owl-like Parrot (Stringops). The 
* See ante, p. 238, tT P. 64. 
