68 DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. [part i. 



Australia by an arbitrary east and west line, and a union of the 

 northern two-thirds with New Guinea, the southern third with 

 New Zealand. Hardly less unnatural is the supposed equiva- 

 lence of South Africa (the African temperate realm) to all 

 tropical Africa and Asia, including Madagascar (the Indo- 

 African tropical realm). South Africa has, it is true, some 

 striking peculiarities ; but they are absolutely unimportant as 

 compared with the great and radical differences between tropical 

 Africa and tropical Asia. On these examples we may fairly 

 rest our rejection of Mr. Allen's scheme. 



We must however say a few words on the zoo-geographical 

 nomenclature proposed in the same paper, which seems also 

 very objectionable. The following terms are proposed : realm, 

 region, province, district, fauna and flora ; the first being the 

 highest, the last the lowest and smallest sub-division. Con- 

 sidering that most of these terms have been used in very different 

 senses already, and that no means of settling their equivalence 

 in different parts of the globe has been even suggested, such a 

 complex system must lead to endless confusion. Until the 

 whole subject is far better known and its first principles agreed 

 upon, the simpler and the fewer the terms employed the better ; 

 and as " region " was employed for the primary divisions by 

 Mr. Sclater, eighteen years ago, and again by Mr. Andrew 

 Murray, in his Geographical Distribution of Mammals ; nothing 

 but obscurity can result from each writer using some new, and 

 doubtfully better, term. For the sub-divisions of the regions 

 no advantage is gained by the use of a distinct term — " pro- 

 vince" — which has been used (by Swainson) for the primary 

 divisions, and which does not itself tell you what rank it holds ; 

 whereas the term " sub-region " speaks for itself as being un- 

 mistakably next in subordination to region, and this clearness of 

 meaning gives it the preference over any independent term. 

 As to minor named sub-divisions, they seem at present uncalled 

 for; and till the greater divisions are themselves generally 

 agreed on, it seems better to adopt no technical names for what 

 must, for a long time to come, be indeterminate. 



Does the Arctic Fauna characterize an independent Region. — 



