136 Prof. W. B. Benham on 



size, but principally through a prolonged connexion with the 

 Indian continent. 



Of those islands east of the boundary-line, Celebes was 

 first cut off from the Indian mainland, and from that time 

 has so remained. Hence it retained isolated ancient forms, 

 which developed independently. Since it consisted from 

 an early date of separate small islands, the fauna remained 

 poor. 



As regards the southern chain of islands (Bali, Lombok, 

 Sumbawa, Flores, Timor, &c.), the impoverishment of the 

 Indian fauna begins even in Bali. A sharp boundary 

 between Bali and Lombok, which would have to rest on the 

 evidence of various groups of animals, does not exist. Mar- 

 supials appear first in Timor, represented by one species ot 

 Phalanger. The above-mentioned southern chain of islands 

 is therefore a zoogeographical representative of an earlier 

 Java. To compare this chain with Celebes alone is inad- 

 missible on account of the difference in their ages. 



East of Celebes and Flores we come for the first time into 

 a distinct transition region, where the Indian forms gradually 

 retire and the Australian increase in number the further east- 

 wards we go. 



XVII. — A Re-examination of Hutton''s Types of New Zealand 

 Earthworms. By W. Blaxland Benham, D.Sc, M.A., 

 Professor of Biology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New 

 Zealand. 



Captain Hutton's account of New Zealand earthworms 

 was written some twenty years ago *, when the study of 

 earthworms was only just engaging the attention of Perrier, 

 and at a time when even the specific characters of the common 

 British earthworms were absolutely neglected by English 

 zoologists, in spite of the careful accounts by Dugiis, at a 

 time when there was practically no literature dealing with 

 exotic genera except the papers which are buried in 

 periodicals which were to be found only in the larger 

 libraries ; it is not surprising, therefore, that the descriptions 

 should be vague, imperfect, and almost useless. Those of us 

 who have made a study of earthworms have long recognized 

 that Hutton's genera, in whicii he places the species, are 



* '' Ou the New Zealand Earthworms in the Otago Museum," Trans. 

 New Zealand Institute, vol. ix. 1876, p. 3.30. 



