MARINE DISTRIBUTION. (;;> 



curronce of purely pelagic animals. On the other hand, shal- 

 low-water marine animals fall into assemblages characteristic 

 of definite areas or provinces of distribution that is to say, 

 though many species have a world-wide distribution, others 

 occur only in particular localities, and certain geograpliii ;il 

 areas arc marked by the existence in them of a number of 

 such peculiar species. The basins of the Pacific, the Ii: 

 Ocean, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Arctic - 

 are thus especially characterized ; and even limited areas of 

 these great geographical divisions, such as the Celtic, the 

 Lusitanian, and the Australian, have their peculiar features. 



But, though the shallow-water marine faunae thus follow 

 the broad features of physical geography, and though, within 

 each great province of distribution thus marked out, temper- 

 ature and other physical conditions have an obvious influence 

 in determining the range of species ; yet, on comparing any 

 two great areas together, differences in climatal conditions 

 are at once seen to be inadequate to account for the differ- 

 ences between the faunae of the two areas. Climate in no 

 way enables us to understand why the Trigonia, the pearly 

 Nautilus, the Cestracion, the eared seals, and the penguins, 

 are found in the Pacific and not in the Atlantic area; 1 nor 

 why the Cetacea of the arctic and antarctic regions should be 

 as different as they are. When we turn to the distribution 

 of land-animals, the boundaries of the provinces of distribu- 

 tion correspond neither with physical features nor with cli- 

 matic conditions. Mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, 

 are so distributed at the present day as to mark out four great 

 areas or provinces of distribution of very unequal extent, in 

 each of which a number of characteristic types, not found 

 elsewhere, occur. These are : 1. The Arctogceal, including 

 North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia as far as Wallace's 

 line, or the boundary between the Indian and the Papuan 

 divisions of the Indian Archipelago ; 2. The Austrocoloi.- 

 bian, comprising all the American Continent south of Mexi<-< ; 

 3. The Australian, from Wallace's line to Tasmania ; 4. The 

 Novozelanian, including the islands of New Zealand. 8 



1 Penguins are found at the Cape of Good Hope and at the Falkland Islands, 

 "but not in the northern parts of the west coast of Africa, nor cf the east coast 

 of South America. In the Pacific they stretch north to the Papuan and Peru- 

 vian coasts. 



a On the classification and distribution of the AlectoromorpTia and ffcttro- 

 morphce : Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1868. Sclater on the " Geo- 

 graphical Distribution of Birds," Ibid., vol. ii. Pucheran, " Revue et Magasin 

 de Zoologie," 1865. Murray, " The Geographical Distribution of Mammals." 



