44 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



Zealand alone, of all the larger islands of the globe, is 

 disconnected by a considerable breadth of ocean (about 

 1400 miles) and also by a deep sea (more than 2000 

 fathoms) from the nearest point of mainland. 



This fact and the absence of an indigenous Mammal- 

 fauna show that New Zealand has not been joined directly 

 by land with Australia recently, even in a geological sense 

 of that term ; possibly it has never been so connected 

 at all. 



To determine, therefore, the geographical affinities of 

 this Sub-region, we must turn to the birds and to the 

 other lower groups, and so endeavour to gain an idea of the 

 affinities of these interesting islands. In New Zealand the 

 want of mammals has been apparently supplied in former 

 epochs by the great development of two families of flight- 

 less birds. One of these groups, the Kiwis {Apterygidse), 

 is still represented by five or six species, although these 

 birds are being rapidly exterminated by the British 

 colonists. The other group, the Moas {Dinomithidte), 

 is now quite extinct, but as remains of their skin and 

 feathers have been found in some of the caves of the 

 Southern Islands, and as the ancient legends and songs of 

 the Maoris contain unmistakable references to them, it is 

 probable that they have ceased to exist only within the 

 last few hundred years. 



In addition to the flightless birds, recent and extinct, 

 New Zealand still possesses two very singular forms of 

 Parrots {Nestor and Stringops), for the reception of which 

 special families have been formed; and eighteen other 

 peculiar genera of land-birds, most of which are related more 

 or less remotely with Australian forms. Altogether there are 

 in New Zealand fifty-seven land-birds, belonging to thirty- 



