444 Capt. F. W. Hutton on the Origin of the 
as representing an Antarctic element, but must be referred to 
the South-American migration. 
It is very remarkable that our crayfishes should belong to 
the same genus as the species found in Fiji, while those of 
Australia and South America are generically distinct, although 
all belonging to the same subfamily. This, I think, proves 
incontestably that Fiji and New Zealand have had direct 
land-communication ; for Prof. Huxley has pointed out that 
freshwater crayfishes are very ill adapted for crossmg even a 
narrow arm of the sea. Mr. Wallace thinks that this con- 
nexion with Fiji “is hardly probable, or we should find 
more community between the productions ” of the two coun- 
tries ; but when we remember the difference of climate we 
cannot expect a greater community than actually exists. 
The marine Crustacea agree with the marine fishes and shells 
in having well marked Australian and Antarctic elements, but 
perhaps it 1s not yet possible to distinguish South-American 
from Antarctic forms. It will not be necessary to pass in re- 
view the lower classes of animals; but little is as yet known 
of them, and at present they throw no new light on the origin 
of our fauna. 
I will now recapitulate the results we have arrived at about 
the New-Zealand flora and fauna. The South-American 
element in the fauna and flora, as shown by the plants, frog, 
Jand-mollusca, and insects, proves that New Zealand was 
closely connected with the South-Pacific continent which pro- 
bably existed in Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous times, while 
the distribution of the freshwater crayfishes proves that Fiji 
and New Zealand have had a continuous land-communication. 
The distribution of the marine Mollusca shows that New 
Zealand has been separated from all northern lands ever since 
the Cretaceous period, and this explains the fragmentary 
nature of the avifauna. At the same time, the fact that many 
birds, land-shells, and plants, showing no South-American 
relations, have passed to New Zealand from the north-west, 
proves that these islands, although not actually connected, 
must have extended much further north and approached much 
more nearly to Queensland and New Guinea at some period 
in the Tertiary era than they do now, and that that period 
was an early one is shown by the amount of change that has 
since taken place in both plants and animals. The flora of the 
Kermadec Islands, and the remarkable phenomenon of our 
migratory cuckoos, give evidence of a third north-easterly 
extension of New Zealand at a much later date; but the 
absence of many common types of Australian birds, and the 
small number of northern plants and animals specifically 
