520 Mr. P. L. Sclater on the Geographical 



(c) Subregions. — Mr. Wallace has divided the Palaearctic 

 Region into four subregions — the European, Mediterranean, 

 Siberian, and Mantchurian. The subject is a difficult one to 

 handle satisfactorily ; but it seems to me that the seven sub- 

 regions which I proposed in my address to the Biological 

 Section of the British Association at Bristol in 1875 (5) are 

 more convenient, though it is of course quite impossible to 

 separate such land-districts by definite lines, except in cases 

 where a marine area intervenes. These seven subregions are: — 



1 . The European Subregion, containing Europe and Iceland. 



2. The Cisatlantean Subregion, embracing all that part of 

 the Palaearctic Region lying south of the Mediterranean Sea, 

 together with the Atlantic Islands. 



3. The Siberian Subregion, embracing the whole of 

 Northern Asia. 



4. The Mantchurian Subregion, containing Northern China, 

 the adjoining part of Mongolia, and the northern islands of 

 Japan. 



5. The Japanese Subregion, embracing the southern Japan- 

 ese Islands. 



6. The Tartarian Subregion, containing the great central 

 plateau of Central Asia. 



7. The Persian Subregion, embracing Persia, Asia Minor, 

 and Syria. 



I will now say a few words upon the principal character- 

 istics of each of these subregions, and upon some of the lead- 

 ing recent authorities upon their birds. These authorities 

 will be mostly those subsequent in point of date to the 

 delivery of my address on Geographical Zoology of 1875, in 

 which most of the principal works of reference upon the 

 subject issued up to that diite were specially referred to. 



1. The European Subregion. 



As regards authorities on the birds of the European Sub- 

 region, there can be no question, I think, that Mr. Dresser's 

 'History of the Birds of Europe' (6), completed in 1881, 

 and contained in eight large quarto volumes, holds the first 



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