DISTRIBUTION OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 21 
to Europe, Asia, and Southern Africa ; and twenty- 
seven to Europe and North America: yet, notwith- 
standing these deductions, there still remain twenty- 
seven natatorial species (or nearly one half of the total 
number found in Europe), as peculiar alone to the 
European range. 
(26.) Among the Grad/atores, or wading birds, we find 
some species so widely dispersed, as to make us believe 
the range of this order is even wider than that of the 
swimming tribes: and this, generally speaking, may 
be the fact. Of the sixty-five species described as 
natives of Europe, thirteen only occur in America, and 
but two can be denominated Arctic birds, although 
several others occasionally frequent those regions: of 
the remainder, four occur in Asia; two in Asia and 
Africa ; four in Asia and America; seven in Asia, Africa, 
and America ; and the whimbrel (Vumenius Pheopus) 
is said to be the same in all the five divisions of the 
globe. It is, consequently, among the wading birds 
that we find those whose range is most extensive ; yet, 
on a general calculation, the number of species peculiar 
to Europe is considerably greater than those of the 
Natatores, the former being as one to two, the latter 
nearly as one to four. This result is highly curious 
and important, since it at once proves that, even among 
birds of the most vagrant habits, the ornithology of 
the European range is characterised by a decided su- 
periority, in the number of its own peculiar species, over 
those which equally inhabit other countries. 
C275) The rapacious order, next to the aquatic tribes, 
is, of all others inhabiting the land, the most widely 
spread. This is particularly the case among the noc- 
turnal ‘species. It is remarkable that, of thirteen 
different owls inhabiting Europe, six only are peculiar, 
and two of these more particularly inhabit the Arctic 
regions. Of the rest, four occur in America, two in 
Southern Africa, and one in both Asia and America, 
The Falconide, or diurnal birds of prey, in regard to 
c 3 
