Relations of the New-Zealand Fauna. 97 



RliynchoneUa among shells ; Perla and Hermes among insects ; 

 Lithohius among centipedes ; Bipalium among the JScolecida ; 

 and Pentagonaster pulchellus and Othilia luzonica among the 

 starfish, — none of these, it must be remembered, being fomid 

 in Australia. The absence of Mammalia, however, in New 

 Zealand shows that this line of communication was never con- 

 tinuous land ; but the absence from Australia of the forms that 

 I have mentioned shows that the connexion along the whole 

 line was closer at every point tlian it was with that continent ; 

 and this leads to the further conclusion that this line of com- 

 munication existed at a later date than the connexion of New 

 Zealand with Australia. 



. The close relationship of the Chatham and Auckland 

 Islands in all their natural productions to New Zealand, and 

 the far greater difference between New Zealand and the islands 

 more to the north, as well as the large number of species of 

 moa lately inhabiting these islands, show that another and 

 smaller continent, or perhaps a large island, existed at a still 

 later period, but has since subsided ; and this must bring us 

 nearly to the recent period, or the difference between New 

 Zealand and the Chatham Islands would be gi-eater. 



The geographical distribution, therefore, of the New-Zealand 

 fauna points to the following conclusions : — 



1. A continental period, during which South America, New 

 Zealand, Australia, and South Africa were all connected, al- 

 though it is not necessary that all should have been connected at 

 the same time ; but New Zealand must have been isolated from 

 all before the spread of the mammals ; and from that time to the 

 present it has never been completely submerged. This con- 

 tinent was inhabited by Struthious birds and by Ilymenolai- 

 muSj Notorms^ Hinulia, Mocoa, Galaxias^ Prototroctes^ Lio- 

 pelma, Janella^ Amphibola^ Henicops, and PeripatuSj and 

 further to the north by Mecjapodius — and probably also by 

 many forms peculiar to New Zealand, such as StrigopSy 

 Keropia, XemcuSj Heteralocha^ Anurhynchus^ NaultinuSj ike. 

 Of course in mentioning these names I do not mean that all 

 the forms were the same then as now, but that the ancestors 

 of these genera lived on the old antarctic continent. 



2. Subsidence followed ; and the evidence then points to a 

 second continent stretching from New Zealand to Lord-IIowe 

 Island and New Caledonia, and extending for an unknown 

 distance into Polynesia, but certainly not so far as the Sand- 

 wich Islands. The fact of mammals being found in the ^q.\v 

 Hebrides, Solomon Islands, and New Ireland shows that be- 

 tween New Caledonia and tjie New Hebrides a narrow strait 

 must have existed cutting off land communication ; but these 

 were connected with China, either directly or by a chain of 



