12 CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF PREY. 



two or three species. Thirty-six of his genera hold only one 

 species apiece, but he gave his reasons. In many cases the 

 grounds on which the genera used by him are maintained 

 will be found set forth in the series of papers in the ' Ibis ' 

 already referred to (commencing 1875), to which his ' List' 

 was intended to be a sequel and an index. 



Turning now to the subject of distribution, an analysis of 

 the letters prefixed will show that 121 Diurnal Raptores 

 have their headquarters in the rich Neotropical region of 

 South America (43 according to Mr. Quelch occurring in 

 British Guiana alone), and very few of them go beyond 

 South Mexico. 102 are Ethiopian, 83 inhabit the Australian 

 region, 78 the Indian, 51 the Palrearctic, which in geographical 

 extent is the largest region of all, and 30 the Nearctic or 

 North American. The contrast between North and South 

 America, one at the head of the list and the other at the tail, 

 is very striking in the Accipitres, but much less so in Striyes. 

 It ought to be said that a good many of the Accipitres — 

 i. e. about 74 species — are found in more regions than one, 

 and in this respect they are greater pluralists than the Owls. 

 But I have not thought it well to take into account the 

 accidental occurrence of single stragglers of either of them, 

 which have indeed little or no real bearing on ornithic distri- 

 bution. Dr. Sharpe has given nine excellent maps to show the 

 distribution of the genera comprising the Vultures, undoubt- 

 edly a most important group (Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xiii. 

 pis. i.-ix.), but I think another map is required to show the 

 distribution of the whole family. This is here supplied, and 

 follows Dr. Sharpe's plan, giving at a glance the entire 

 distribution of the Cathartidce in the New World and the 

 Vulturida in the Old. It will be observed that the former 

 do not extend to Haiti, nor the latter to Madagascar or 

 Borneo. On the west coast of North America Lord Wal- 

 singham has shot Vultures a good bit north of Mendocino, 

 probably the rare Pseudoyryphm calif ornianus, one of the 

 five North-American birds which are becoming extinct (' Ibis/ 

 1891, p. 635), and the shading is carried to the 45th degree. 

 Before beginning the List the folloAving very rare species, 

 as having been added to the Collection since my father's 



