Sept. 2, 1875] 



NA TURE 



375 



in the saire order as I have generally usecU in my lectures on 

 zoological geography, namely :^ 



I. — Palseurctic Region "j 



II. — Ethiopian Region | 



\\a. — Lemurian Sub-region \ Ar 



III. — Indian Region | 



IV. — Neartic Region J 



V. — Neotropical Region ) ^^^^ 



Va. — Anlillean Sub-region \ 



VI.— Australian Region . . . Antarctogaa. 



VII. — Pacific Region .... Ornithogtsa. 



I.— THE PALyEARCTIC REGION. 

 The Pa'a'arctic Region I shall consider for convenience sake in 

 the following seven sub-regions : — 



1. The CisatlanUan Sub-re^wn, embracing all that] part of 

 the Paliuarctic Region lying south of the Mediterranean Sea. 



\a. The Atlantic Islands. 



2. The European Sub-region. 



3. The Siberian Sub-region, embracing the whole of Northern 

 Asia. 



4. The Mantchurian Sub-region, containing Northern China 

 and the adjoining part of Mongolia. 



5. The Japanese Sub-region, embracing the Japanese Islands. 



6. The Tartarian Sub region, containing the great deseit- 

 region of Central Asia. 



7. The Persian Sub-region, embracing Persia, Asia Minor, and 

 Syria. 



I. The Cisatlantean Sub-region. 



As regards the zoology of the main western portion of this 

 district (Tunis and Algeria) our knowledge may be now said to 

 be prttty far advanced. The standard work on the subject is 

 the "Exploration Scientifique de I'Algerie" published by the 

 French Government, in which are treatises on the Mammals and 

 Birds of Algeria by Loche, and on the Reptiles and Fi^lus by 

 Guichenot. This work was commenced in parts in 1840, and 

 the portions relating to the Mammals and Birds were, I believe, 

 intended to have been written by M. Vaillant, the artist of the 

 Commission ; but only the plates were issued, and the text by 

 Captain Loche was not completed until 1867. A smaller and 

 more convenient work (or travellers is the last-named author's 

 catalogue of the Mammals and Birds of Algeria, published in 

 1858. 



As regards the herpetology of Algeria, an excellent memoir 

 on this subject by Dr. Alexander Strauch will be found in 

 the fourth volume of the new memoir of the Academy of St. 

 Petersburg. Those who penetrate beyond the Atlas will find the 

 lists of the vertebrated animals appended to Canon Tristram's 

 "Great Sahara" very useful. Many interesting details about 

 the birds of Tunis and Algeria will likewise be found in the 

 papers communicated to the " Ibis," by Messrs. Salvin, 

 Tristram, and J. H. Gurney, jun. 



Of Morocco and the extreme western portion of the Alias, 

 our knowledge is as yet by no means so perfect. As regards the 

 birds of Tangier and its vicinity, we have Colonel Irby's lately 

 published volume on the Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar, 

 in which the " observations on the Moorish birds are in a 

 great measure culled from the MSS. of the late M. Favier — 

 a collector long resident in Tangier." But in the south of Mo- 

 rocco, in the Western Atlas and surrounding district, there is 

 certainly a considerable terra incognita within easy reach of 

 England, which has hitherto been almost inaccessible to natura- 

 lists, though the short expedition of Dr. Hooker, Mr. Maw, 

 and Mr. Ball in 1871 (of which a notice only has been pub- 

 lished, but a complete scientific account is, 1 believe, in pre- 

 paraton), shows that it may be penetrated if proper precautions 

 are taken. 



\a. The Atlantic Islands. 



The Atlantean island-groups of the Canaries, Madeira, and 

 the Azores, may perhaps be most naturally appended to this 

 division of the Palrcarctic Region. Our knowledge of the fauna 

 of each of these three groups is tolerable, although there is of 

 course much to be done in working up details. As regards the 

 Canaries, the standard work is Webb and Berthelot's " Histoire 

 Naturelle des lies Canaries," published at Paris under the 

 auspices of the Minister of Public Instruction. Dr. Carl Bolle 

 has visited the group more recently, and written several excel- 

 lent articles in Cabanis's Journal on their ornithology. 



Madeira has had the advantage of the residence of several 



first-class English naturalists — I need only mention the names 

 of Lowe, Vernon, Wollaston, and Johnson, to establish this 

 point. More than twenty years ago Mr. E. W. Plarcourt, in 

 his "Sketch of Madeira," and in contributions to the "Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society," and "Annals of Natu- 

 ral History," gave us a good account of the ornithology of 

 Madeira. Mr. F. Godman has recently published an excellent 

 article on the Birds of Madeira and the Canaries in the " Ibis " 

 for 1872, in which a cc*nplete risume is given of the whole 

 of our previous knowledge of this subject, together with the in- 

 formation obtained by the author himself during his expedition 

 to these islands in 1871. 



As regards the fishes of Madeira, they have formed a subject 

 of study of several excellent ichthyologists. The Rev. R. T. 

 Lowe made numerous communications to the Zoological Society 

 of London upon them in the early days of the Society, and 

 published in their "Transactions" a Synopsis of Madeiran 

 Fishes, to which divers supplements were afterwards added. 

 Subsequently Mr. J. Y. Johnson took up the subject and made 

 numerous additions to Mr. Lowe's experiences, which were 

 mostly published by the same Society. Dr. Giinther has like- 

 wise contributed to our knowledge of Madeiran fishes, so that 

 on the whole there is, perhaps, hardly any locality out of 

 Europe with the ichthyology of which we have a better general 

 acquaintance. 



For our knowledge of the higher animals of the third island- 

 groups above spoken of, that of the Azores, we are mainly in- 

 debted to the energy of Mr. F. D. Godman, who made a special 

 expedition to those islands in 1865, with the |object of studying 

 their fauna. The results are embodied in his volume on the 

 Azores, published by Van Voorst in 1870. Morelet's work on 

 the Azores, previously published, is mainly devoted to the Land- 

 shell. Mr. Godman is almost the only authority upon the 

 Mammals, Birds, and other Vertebrates. 



2. The European Sub-r.^gion. 



To discuss, or even to give the titles of, all the works that 

 have been published on the Vertebrates of Europe would extend 

 this address to far . beyond its proper limits. I must content 

 myself with a few words on the principal works which have 

 appeared of late years — first, upon the Zoology of Europe 

 generally, and secondly, upon the Faunas of its chief political 

 divisions. 



A. Mammals of Europe. 



To begin with the Mammals, our standard authority upon the 

 European members of this class is Blasius's " Naturgeschichte 

 der Saugethiere Deutschlands und der angrenzenden Lander," 

 and an excellent work it is. Unfortunately, however, it 

 does not extend into Southern Europe, where alone many of 

 the more interesting forms of European Mammal-life make their 

 appearance. A work founded on Blasius's volume and embra- 

 cing the additional species of Mammals to be met with in Spain, 

 Italy, and Turkey is very desirable, and it is with great 

 pleasure that I have been informed that an energetic member of 

 this Association has already set some such undertaking before 

 him. The only work of reference of this extent that I am at 

 present acquainted with is Lord Clermont's useful " Guide to the 

 Quadrupeds and Reptiles of Europe," published in 1859. As 

 regards the constituent countries of the European Sub-region, 

 there are but few recommcndable works devoted to the illustra- 

 tion of their Mammal-faunas. In England we have Bell's 

 "British Quadrupeds," belonging to Mr. Van Voorst's excellent 

 series. This remained long out of print, until its recent 

 re-issue in 1874 by the author, with the assistance of Mr. 

 R. F. Tomes and Mr. Alston. For France, M. Gervais's 

 "Zoologieet Paleontologie Fran9aise" enumerates both recent 

 and fossil Mammals, though most regard is paid to the extirict 

 fauna. As regards Spanish Mammals, almost the only authority 

 I am acquainted with is Rosenhauer's "Thiere Andalusiens" 

 which is, however, very defective, the author having devoted 

 himself principally to the study of the Invertebrates. Captain 

 Cork (afterwards Widdrington) was the original discoverer of 

 several of the rarer Mammals of Spain ; but the account of 

 them in his " Sketches " is very meagre. A bare list of 

 the Mammals of Portugal is given by Prof. Barboza de Bocage 

 in the "Revue Zoologique " for 1863. Passing over to 

 Italy, Bonaparte's "Fauna Italica" and Costa's "Fauna 

 del Regno di Napoli" must be mentioned, though both are 

 somewhat out of date. But the former work is still the only 

 authority on certain of the rarer Italian species and local form s. 



