324 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
(TAPACULO)—all of them low Passeres, which are absolutely pecu- 
liar, and of Picarizv, in the like condition, Galbulidw (JACAMAR), 
Momotide (Mormot), Shamphastide (Toucan), Steatornithide 
(GUACHARO), and Todidx (Toby); while still more significant are 
the Palamedeide (SCREAMER), Psophid# (TRUMPETER), certain gen- 
eralized Limicole as Attagis and Thinocorys, and above all isolated 
forms like Cariama (SERIEMA) and Lurypyga (SUN-BITTERN). We 
can scarcely be wrong also in attributing to the Neotropical Region 
the Order of Jmpennes (PENGUIN) and the singularly generalized 
form Chionis (SHEATHBILL), though both have a wide distribution 
in the South-polar seas. 
Taking the Neotropical Region to extend from Cape Horn over 
the whole continent of South and Central America, but leaving its 
northern frontier, if it can be defined at all, to be delimited by 
the zoologists of the Nearctic area,’ there is hardly one that 
exhibits more variety of physical features, and the Subregions into 
which it may be divided cannot be easily traced. The six divisions 
suggested to the present writer in 1875 (Hncycl. Brit. ed. 9, il. 
p. 744) by Mr. Salvin seem to be better than the four laid down 
by Mr. Wallace; and, subject to some uncertain modification, as 
just hinted, on the northern boundary, are here again adopted ; 
but the confines of all, except one, are of the vaguest. That one 
is the Antillean, composed of what are generally known as the 
West-India Islands, with the omission of Trinidad and Tobago, 
whose Fauna is distinctly continental. Beginning, however, at the 
southern point of the Region, we seem to have a Subregion extend- 
ing on the east coast to somewhere north of Bahia Blanca, whence 
its boundary runs in a north-westerly direction, passing to the east 
of Mendoza, and then northward along the eastern and higher 
slopes of the Andes, and after trifurcating on either side of the 
valleys of the Magdalena and its confluent the Cauca, returns along 
the western slope of the Cordillera until it trends seaward and 
reaches the Pacific coast about Truxillo. As the peculiarities of 
this Subregion are mainly developed in Patagonia, the name 
“Patagonian” has been applied to it, though its northern ex- 
tremity is so far distant from its eponymous territory. Next we 
have what may be called the “Brazilian” Subregion, marching 
with the foregoing to somewhere near Potosi, whence it turns to 
the north-east, and, avoiding the basin of the Amazons, strikes 
the Paranahyba, thence making its way to the Atlantic. Then 
comes the “ Amazonian,” consisting of the enormous basin of the 
1 As already stated, Prof. Heilprin proposes to annex to the Neotropical 
Region a not inconsiderable portion of what has generally been referred to the 
so-called ‘‘ Nearctic Region,” as, for instance, the lowlands (tierras calientes) 
on either side of the Mexican tableland, Southern California, and some more of 
the territory of the United States of America. 
