320 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
Region; while the Kingfishers 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 Casuariidz (CASSOWARY) and Dromxidx (EMEU), both Ratite, 
and together forming the Order MEGISTANES, and then the Rhino- 
chetide (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 Hurypyga (SUN-BITTERN) of 
South America. The Order Columbzx furnishes a very distinct and 
monotypic Family in Didunculidw (DODLET) and the Psittaci, the 
gorgeous brush-tongued Parrots, known as Loriidx or Trichoglossidx 
(Lory). The Families of true Passeres 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 Drepanidide (DREPANIS) and Para- 
diseide (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 Atrichidx (SCRUB-BIRD), 
and Menuridex (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 Columbx, such as Goura, 
Leucosarcia (WONGA-WONGA), Lophophapeg Chrysena, and others, 
while among the most curious Land-birds, beside those already 
named, may be specially recorded Megacephalon, Lipoa, and 
Talegallus among the MercApopres; Tribonyx, Pareudiastes, and 
Habroptila—the two last brevipennate RatLs; while Pedionomus, 
the position of which has long been disputed, proves (Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1889, p. 310) to be one of the TJwurnicide. The existence of a 
BustTarD (Eupodotis) in Australia presents a suggestive example of 
interrupted distribution, since none of the Otidide 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), may 
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, equally uncertain. 
2 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 Australia leaving much to be desired. Dr. E. P. 
