430 Capt. F. W. Hutton on the Origin of the 
a younger branch of the family from which the Australian 
mammals had been separated long previously. Consequently 
the relationship between the American and Australian marsu- 
pials does not militate against Mr. Wallace’s theory. ‘The 
distribution of the birds is decidedly favourable to it. The 
flycatchers, sun-birds, hornbills, bee-eaters, king-crows, king- 
fishers, nightjars, swifts, bustards, and other Australian 
birds are all related to Old-World forms, exceptions perhaps 
being found in the Megapodes, or mound-builders, which are 
probably allied to the curassows of Brazil, and also in the 
brush-tongued parrots, which have their nearest allies in the 
parrots of South America. 
Most of the families of lizards follow the same rule of dis- 
tribution as the birds; but the Gymnophthalmide are not 
known in North America, although found in Timor, New 
Guinea, Polynesia, and South America ; and of the Iguanidz 
(a characteristic South-American family) a very distinct 
species is found in Fiji, and another is supposed to occur in 
Australia. With the snakes the case is different. Out of the 
fourteen families of land-snakes inhabiting the Australian 
region, no less than four are found in India, Africa, and South 
America, but not in North America; and another family, the 
Amblycephalidee, is found in India, in South America, and 
doubtfully in New Caledonia, but not in North America, 
although all, according to Mr. Wallace, must have passed 
through North America. The freshwater tortoises are found 
only in Africa, Australia, and South America. The principal 
genus, however, occurs both in Australia and in South 
America, but notin Africa. Here, therefore, the distribution 
is not in accordance with theory. 
The affinity between the faunas of Australia and South 
America is still better shown in the frogs, whose distribution 
is quite at variance with that of the birds. One family (Pelo- 
dryadze) is confined to these two regions; two others have the 
same distribution as the families of snakes just mentioned, 
being absent from North America, while closely allied forms 
are found in Australia and South America; and a family of 
tree-frogs, although widely spread and occurring in North 
America, has the South-American species more closely related 
to those of Australia than to those of North America. 
The marine and most of the freshwater fishes (except 
Osteoglossum, which is found only in Borneo, Queensland, and 
Brazil), as well as some groups of insects, such as most of the 
butterflies and stag-beetles, follow the same rule in distribu- 
tion as the birds; while other groups of insects, such as the 
Buprestide, Longicorn beetles, and the family of Castniude 
among moths, follow the distribution of the frogs. 
