GENERAL RESULTS ON EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. Q7 
Faico is now restricted, are the most typical group of 
their family: of these the kestrel, and five others, have 
their chief metropolis in the European province. The 
whole of North America has hitherto produced but 
four. Le Vaillant enumerates the same number from 
Southern and Central Africa. Those of Asia Proper are 
‘not known; but only two are furnished by the vast 
regions of Australia. Now, if we merely look to these 
respective numbers, the difference is sufficiently dis- 
proportionate: but when the great inferiority of the 
European province, to those of America, Africa, and 
Australia, in point of extent, are taken into the account, 
the great proportion of these eminently typical species in 
Europe is particularly striking. The genus Lanius is 
strictly typical of its own family. In Europe we have 
certainly five, and probably six, species; while only 
three inhabit the whole of the New World. In Africa, 
Le Vaillant discovered five; but two of these, from 
having their chief metropolis in the heart of Europe, 
cannot be considered as characteristic of the former 
continent. The manifest preponderance of genera in 
the European range is further illustrated by the following 
fact : — The total number of species dmong birds, exist- 
ing in collections, may be safely estimated at 6000, 
since it has been asserted that the Museum of Berlin 
alone contains that number. These have been referred 
to about’ 380 genera; but as several of these genera 
comprise others not yet characterised, we will estimate 
the number at 400: this would leave 15 species to 
each generic group; whlie, if the ornithology of the 
European range is alone considered, the proportion 
which the genera bear to the species is no more than 
as one to three. . 
(37.) The above facts serve to illustrate a remarkable 
analogy between the distribution of the feathered tribes, 
and the various races of mankind inhabiting the Eu- 
ropean, or rather the Caucasian, province. A modern 
writer of no mean authority, and to whom the above 
facts were entirely unknown, when speaking of the 
