GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 327 
group of islands. There is one peculiar Family, Jodidx, already 
mentioned, and that consists of but a single genus with 4 or 
perhaps 5 species—one limited to each of the large islands, Cuba, 
Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Porto Rico—the fifth (if it exists) being 
from an unknown locality.'| Especially worthy of record is the 
presence of 2 species or even genera of TRoGON—Prionotelws peculiar 
to Cuba, and Zemnotrogon (which exhibits a remarkable similarity 
to the African Hapaloderma) peculiar to Hispaniola. Another of 
many singular facts that might be noticed did space admit is that 
while Jamaica has no KESTREL at all (its place there being taken, in 
winter at least, by the American form of MERLIN) Cuba possesses in 
addition to one widely-ranging species of the genus 7'innunculus,? 
a second that is peculiar to it, and this last, 7. sparverioides, offers 
a great resemblance to the species, 7. gracilis, which is peculiar to 
the Seychelles, almost at its antipodes.? Speculation as to the 
former history of the Antilles would be at present vain. There 
is no portion of the world that has been so long colonized by 
Europeans, of which the existing Fauna is so little known, and 
though of late as regards the British possessions something more 
than ever had been done has been attempted, the results do not 
justify more than the belief, which the facts already given may 
indicate, that there must have been no ordinary amount of geo- 
logical disturbance to account for the present distribution of the 
Fauna.+* 
With this must end the account here to be given of the several 
Notogean Regions, since at present we have few means of deter- 
mining the northern limits of the Neotropical Avifauna, nor know 
1 A bird of this group, or name at any rate, was one of those asserted by 
Ledru (Voyage &c. ii. p. 89. Paris: 1810) to have formerly inhabited St. 
Thomas in the Antilles (¢f. EXTERMINATION, p. 219). 
2 T am unable to agree with the view taken (Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. pp. 437-442) 
as to splitting up the 7. sparverius into several local species or forms, though it 
was approved by so good an authority as the late Mr. Gurney. 
° This fact is worth consideration relatively to the similarity or asserted affinity 
between the two Mammalian genera, Solenodon of the Antilles and Centetes, with 
its allies, of Madagascar, while a splendid genus of Lepidoptera, Uranidia or 
Urania, which has two species peculiar to Cuba and one to Jamaica, is said to 
have its nearest ally in Chrysiridia of the grand African island and of Zanzibar. 
4 The Neotropical Avifauna is said to be the richest in the world, and the 
literature relating to it is no Jess abundant. While the papers in journals are 
almost countless, it would be impossible here to give the titles of even the, 
separately-published works, The following list contains the names of the chief 
authors of the latter:—Azara, Burmeister, Castelnau, Cory, d’Orbigny, Gay, 
Godman, Gosse, Gundlach, Hernandez, Hudson, Lembeye, Léotaud, Marcgrave, 
Martius, (Prince) Maximilian (of Wied), Molina, Nierenberg, Oustalet, von Pel- 
zeln, de Philippi, Poey, de la Sagra, Salvin, Sclater, Sloane, Spix, Taczanowski, 
Tschudi. 
