338 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
3; Sturnide, Panuridx, Ixide and Sylviidx, 1 each; Timeliide and 
Phasianidz, 2 each; and “ Péerocleidx” + and Anatidx, 1 apiece.? 
The Mediterranean Province appears to have peculiar to it 4 
genera of Sylviidx, and 1 genus of Laridx; but some 23 more 
belong to it and to no other part of the Subregion, though having 
a wider range outside of the latter. Of these, 8 are common to the 
Ethiopian and Indian Regions, while confined to the former and the 
Province are 11, and having the same relation to the latter 2. 
Finally, it has a genus of Anatidx, Hrismatura, which is represented 
in Australia and America, as well as in Africa. 
The Atlantic Islands,? which must be regarded as belonging to 
the Mediterranean Province, offer some peculiarities of great interest. 
First we have the Azores, the subject of an excellent monograph by 
Mr. Frederick Godman,* who shews that there is a general tendency 
among their birds to vary more or less from their continental repre- 
sentatives, especially in having almost always a darker plumage, a 
stouter bill and stronger legs, and in one instance, a BULLFINCH, 
Pyrrhula murina, the variation justifies its specific distinction. The 
same tendency is not so observable in the Madeiras, but these have 
at least two peculiar species, and recent researches in the Canaries ® 
prove that there differentiation is carried on to a still greater extent, 
and that certain local forms are often confined to a particular island, 
while again there are some species that occur in all the islands with 
little or no sensible variation. It is almost indubitably proved that 
all those groups have been colonized from the mainland of the 
Mediterranean Province, and the changes which the colonists have 
undergone may be in some cases a measure of the period that has 
elapsed since one species after another has settled upon them. In 
no case does the colonization of Land-birds seem to be very ancient, 
1 By strict rule, this Family should be called Syrrhaptide, Syrrhaptes being 
the earliest-named genus belonging to it. But one species of this genus overran 
Europe in astonishing numbers in 1863 and again in 1888, both times breeding in 
its new-found quarters (see SAND-GROUSE). 
2 Information on the ornithology of this Province gathered by recent Russian 
travellers has been mostly published in their own language. Nevertheless, Dr. 
Severzov’s notes on the Birds of Turkestan have been rendered into English by 
Messrs. Crimers and Dresser (Zbis, 1875, pp. 96, 286, 3832 ; and 1876, pp. 77, 171, 
319, 410), and an English translation by the former of those gentlemen of the 
ornithological portion of Prjevalsky’s travels was given by the late Mr. Rowley in 
his Ornithological Miscellany, vols. ii. and iii. 
3 Among these Mr. Wallace groups the Cape-Verd Islands; but whatever 
may be the case with other Classes of animals, their Birds shew a preponderance 
of Ethiopian forms, and here they must be referred to that Region. 
4 Natural History of the Azores or Western Islands. London : 1870. 
5 i. G. Meada-Walde, Zbis, 1889, pp. 1-18, 503-520 ; 1890, pp. 429-438 ; H. B. 
Tristram, op. cit. 1889, pp. 18-32; and A. Konig, Journ. fiir Orn. 1889, pp. 199, 
263 ; 1890, pp. 257-488, tabb. i.-viii. 
