Distribution of Birds. 535 



must be kept separate ; while the Pacific Islands, after ex- 

 cluding the Solomon group, which are outliers of the Papuan 

 Subregion, constitute a fourth division ; and the Sandwich 

 Islands, which seem to be quite different from the South 

 Pacific group, a fifth. 



I will therefore speak of the Australian Region, and the 

 work that has recently been done in it, under five heads. 

 These will be : — 



1. The Papuan Subreffion. 



2. The Australian Subregion, 



3. The Maorian Subregion. 



4. The Pacific Subregion. 



5. The Hairaiian Subregion. 



1. The Papuan Subregion. 



An enormous advance has been made in our knowledge of 

 the avifauna of this subregion since the date of my " British 

 Association Address.^'' Not only have active and enter- 

 prising naturalists and collectors ransacked many parts of 

 it, but the whole information amassed by them has been 

 brought together and put into uniform siiape in Count 

 •Salvadori^s excellent ' Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle 

 Molucche ' (78) . This accurate and comprehensive treatise, 

 which was published at Turin in three volumes in 1880-82, is 

 certainly one of the best executed and most meritorious 

 ornithological works of the present period, and has raised 

 its author to the rank of one of the most prominent writers 

 upon modern ornithology. Reckoning the addenda ap- 

 pended to the third volume, it gives us an account of no less 

 than 1028 species, and shows us that the Papuan Avifauna 

 is not only remarkable in its character, but also numerically 

 one of the most extensive on the earth's surface. Moreover, 

 Count Salvadori has not closed his labours upon this subject, 

 but has already issued two parts of a supplement (79), 

 in which are recorded the additions made to the ornithology 

 of the Papuan Subregion since the original work was con- 

 cluded. 



