DISTRIBUTION IN SPACE 105 



objections can be urged against the longitudinal 

 regions sketched out by Dr. Sclater, and although 

 personally we consider that the whole subject 

 will require serious modification, and that some 

 scheme of latitudinal division will yet be proved 

 to be the correct one, we think that for the 

 purposes of the present little work these six, or 

 perhaps five (as we shall shortly learn), regions 

 may be recognised. Dr. Sclater's six regions 

 were named respectively . as follows : I. the 

 Palaearctic Region; II. the Ethiopian Region; 

 III. the Indian, or as it is frequently termed, the 

 Oriental Region ; IV. the Australian Region ; 

 V. the Nearctic Region ; and VI. the Neotropical 

 Region. There is now, however, a very widely 

 prevailing opinion amongst naturalists that 

 New Zealand should form a separate region, 

 and that the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions 

 should be amalgamated, and called the Triarctic 

 or Holarctic Region. It is not possible here to 

 describe the many sub-regions and provinces into 

 which the half-dozen regions have been sub- 

 divided, although we may roughly define the 

 geographical limits of the latter and briefly 

 indicate their most characteristic avine features, 

 before sketching out the distribution of the 

 various orders. 



