116 GENERAL EVOLUTION. 



niidse (Atticus, Telea, etc.), while the largest and most powerful 

 of this order in the Palaeo tropical (Indian) region are the Papilio- 

 nid forms of Ornithoptera, etc., the generally admitted crown and 

 head of all. Of course other types, both higher and lower, are 

 largely developed in each and all of these regions, and the signifi- 

 cance of the aboye facts is perhaps only to be seen when taken in 

 connection with a large number of others pointing in the same 

 direction. 



Two or three comparisons of different faunae may be brought 

 forward finally. First, returning to the birds, a survey of some 

 of the differences between the birds of Panama, Pennsylvania, and 

 Palestine may be made.* 



Tristram noticed three hundred and twenty-two species of 

 birds within the range of the ancient territory of Palestine. Of 

 these two hundred and thirty were land and ninety-two water 

 birds, i. e., Natatores and the wading Cursores. Of the two hun- 

 dred and thirty, seventy-nine are common to the British Islands, 

 and thirty-six of them are found in China, but a small j^roportion 

 extending their range to both these extremes. Of the water birds, 

 which are always more widely distributed, fifty-five of the ninety- 

 two are British and fifty-seven Chinese. Twenty-seven appear to 

 be confined to Palestine, and to the immediately adjacent country ; 

 the largest of these is a crow. 



Taking the two hundred and thirty land birds at a glance, 

 we find the utter absence of so many of the well-known forms 

 that enliven our grounds and forests. The absence of Tanagridse 

 (including Sylvicolidae) and Icteridse, changes the aspect of the 

 bird-fauna at once. What have we here, then, of nine-quilled 

 Oscines to enliven the meadows like our swarms of blackbirds, or 

 fill the tree-tops and thickets with flutter like our wood-warblers ? 

 Nothing ; for the twenty-four species of finches, Fringillidae, will 

 but balance our own, though the genera are all different but four, 

 and they the most weakly represented by species. We must look 

 to the higher series, the ten- quilled song-birds, for the missing 

 rank and file. While a much larger extent of the Eastern United 

 States possesses fifty species of these types, the little Palestine has 

 already furnished a list of one hundred and twenty-eight. 



First, of the crows, which verge nearest Icteridae hj the star- 

 lings, we have thirteen species against five in our district of the 



* From the "American Naturalist," 1868, by the author. 



