98 Capt. F. W. Hutton on the Geographical 



islands. This second continent received from the north those 

 forms ah-eady enmnerated, together probably with Sj/henosacus, 

 the rails, and the starlings ; at the same time it received from 

 Australia the honey-eaters, CertMpaniSj Gerygone^ Petroica^ 

 Rhipiduray and others, and from that time to the present has 

 been occasionally receiving additional birds. It will also be 

 noticed that very few of the birds of the middle palajotropical 

 region came down this line of communication, no pheasants, 

 woodpeckers, grackles, or finches ; while Australia, in its 

 wood-swallows (Artanms), pittas, quails, and numerous finches, 

 shows now some affinity to this region. This can be best ex- 

 plained by supposing that the New-Zealand line of communi- 

 cation was broken up before these birds came into existence, 

 and that further changes have since taken place in the lines of 

 easiest communication ; indeed the fact of such forms as the 

 elephant, tiger, and bear being found in Sumatra and Borneo, 

 marsupials in Celebes, the Moluccas, Solomon Islands, and 

 New Hebrides, and the presence of an emu in New Guinea, 

 and a cassowary in Australia, prove that changes in the dis- 

 tribution of land have since taken place ; but it is foreign to 

 the object of this paper to speculate on these here. This 

 second continent was also inhabited by most of the orders of 

 insects, although perhaps not in great abundance ; but He- 

 teroptera and the butterfly section of the Lepidoptera were 

 absent. 



3. Subsidence again followed, and New Zealand was re- 

 duced for a long time to a number of islands, upon many of 

 which the moa lived. This was followed by — 



4. Elevation : these islands were connected and a large 

 island existed disconnected from Polynesia. This was once 

 more followed by — 



5. Subsidence ; and the geography of this part of the world 

 assumed somewhat of its present form. 



Geological Evidence. 



Such are, I think, the deductions that may be fairly drawn 

 from a study of our fauna. It remains now to examine the 

 geological and palieontological evidence, and see whether it 

 agrees with that derived from zoology, and then to try to fix 

 with as much accuracy as possible the dates of the principal 

 movements of the earth's sm'face which have gradually led to 

 the present state of the New-Zealand fauna. 



Hardly any thing is yet known of the pala?ozoic rocks of 

 New Zealand. The earliest fossil shells described are almost 

 identical with those living in Europe during the Triassic 

 period ; but the only known plant is Daminara australis 



