HEDLEV : MOLLUSCA OF THE ORIENTAL REGION". 55 



examination I now eliminate ail of these Init bvoadbcnti from 

 Hadra. 



Conversely : the affinities of New Guinea with western lands 

 is unduly depreciated. The decisive testimony of a whole group 

 of Cochlostyla is suppressed, Obbina, Vagimilus and especially 

 Rhysota, all related westward, are more numerous than here 

 indicated. While Mr. Cooke wrote, " Not a single Cyclophorus 

 occurs," Dr. von Moellendorff's report of its occurrence was 

 receiving publication. '' Lagochilns so marked a feature of the 

 Indo- Malayan fauna," instead of being as Mr. Cooke unfortu- 

 nately declares, "conspicuous by its absence," had already been 

 reported by Dr. von Moellendorff from Papua. 



Upon the hypothesis that the Queensland fauna is the oldest 

 Australian constituent, Wallace derives * the New Zealand 

 fauna therefrom. But upon the opposite premises that the 

 Queensland fauna is the latest arrival in Australia, I deduce t 

 that the New Zealand fauna sprang not from Australian, but 

 from Melanesian sources. Having adopted J my conclusions 

 on the origin of the Queensland snail-fauna, Mr. Cooke 

 cannot with compatibility accept also the results of Wallace's 

 irreconcilable proposition § that the relations of New Zea- 

 land are with N.E. Australia. I may be excused for here 

 repeating my statement, that the supposed molluscan community 

 of New Zealand with Northern Australia rested upon the 

 fictitious existence in New Zealand oi Pavyphanta millegani, Hadni 

 reiiiga, Cristigihha taranaki and Rhytida rapida, and on the equally 

 fictitious presence in Australia of Charopa kivi, C . Ophelia, C. ziczac 

 and C. coma. 



It has been shown by the writer and accepted by Messrs. 

 Cockerell and CoUinge j| that the Janellidae properly embraces 

 both Janella and Hyalimax. These ancient wrecks of past 

 epochs, tempt speculation, as to whether the Oriental Region of 

 to-day may not have been evolved from an equatorial tract 

 whose crescent swept from New Zealand to Mauritius. 



Summary : My conclusion briefly is that, as far as the 

 mollusca are concerned, the Oriental Region should be extended 

 to include the Papuan, Polynesian and Melanesian Sub-regions, 

 the latter to contain New Zealand ; while the Australasian 

 should be restricted to Tasmania and Australia minus Queens- 

 land. 



* Island Life, 2nd Ed., Chap. xxii. t Natural Science, vol. iii , pp, 187-igi. 



X p. 322 ; § p. 325 of vol. iii., Cambridge Natural History. |i Conchologist II., p. 195. 



