46 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



some writers on Geographical Distribution, especially 

 Professor Huxley and Professor Newton, are inclined to 

 give to New Zealand and its islands the rank of an inde- 

 pendent Region among the primary divisions of the globe. 

 There is, no doubt, as has just been shown, a good deal to 

 be said for this proposal; but, on the other hand, there 

 are even stronger reasons for retaining New Zealand as 

 a Sub-region of the Australian Region. In the first place, 

 we are here dealing with Mammals alone, and it seems 

 rather absurd to assign the value of a primary Region to a 

 group of small islands characterised by the almost entire 

 absence of that class of animals with which we are most 

 concerned. In the second place, looking at Regions from 

 a more general point of view, there is a great practical 

 convenience (as Mr. Wallace has pointed out) in keeping 

 the more or less equal divisions of the globe as primary 

 divisions. It seems, therefore, to be quite unnecessary to 

 elevate so small a portion of the world into a Primary 

 Region. Other small insular areas might, with some 

 justice, put forward nearly similar claims. In the third 

 place, although New Zealand possesses no indigenous 

 terrestrial Mammals, yet the fauna, such as it is, shows an 

 unmistakable affinity of various degrees to that of Australia, 

 and more especially to the tropical part of that continent. 

 It is, indeed, probable that the whole of the fauna of New 

 Zealand has been originally derived from that source, 

 although in the greater number of cases it has undergone 

 considerable modification. 



Dr. H. O. Forbes (4) has lately published a specula- 

 tive article on the former existence of a (now mostly 

 submerged) southern continent, the remains of which are 

 represented by the land round the South Pole, while 



