26 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
circumstances admit ; and, having done this, the result 
may be entitled to proportionate confidence. 
(35.) As a general recapitulation of the foregoing de- 
tails, we may estimate the totalnumber of European species 
at 588, excluding a few, which only appear, at remote 
intervals, as stragglers: of these, thirty-one are more 
peculiar to the Arctic regions of Europe, America, and 
probably of Asia; the proportion being as one to 
thirteen. Such as occur, also, in temperate Asia and 
America amount to sixty-eight; forty of which are 
aquatic : nine are dispersed over four divisions of’ the 
globe, to none of which can they be particularly ap- 
propriated ; while one or two extend also to Australia. 
With all these deductions, the number will be reduced 
to about 278. If from these we abstract such as have 
a range beyond the European limits, the number may 
be further reduced to about 250: so that nearly two 
thirds of the total number of birds found in Europe, 
Northern Africa, and Western Asia, are zoologically cha- 
racterised as peculiar to these countries. 
(36.) Another remarkable fact in European ornithology, 
which deserves attention, is the great number of generic 
types it contains, when viewed with reference to the num- 
ber of species. These genera may be calculated at 108, 
omitting some which have not been generally adopted, 
and others which may more correctly be termed sec- 
tions. The proportion which these genera bear to the 
species (estimated before at 388) amounts to more than 
two to seven; or, in other words, does not give seven 
birds to two genera. It is further remarkable, that 
most of these genera are typical of their respective 
families. True it is, that such genera are usually very 
widely dispersed ; but in no division of the globe do 
they appear so much concentrated, or so numerous in 
proportion to the species, as in Europe. This remark 
not only applies to the typical genera, but is frequently 
applicable to the number of species they respectively 
contain. One instance will illustrate our meaning. The 
noble falcons, or those to which the generic name of. 
