118 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
nea, New Ireland, New Caledonia, and the little islands 
surrounding them, constitutes the remote and _little- 
known region of the paradise birds. None of these 
magnificent creatures have been actually detected beyond 
the shores of New Guinea, although it is generally be- 
lieved that they annually migrate for a few months to 
the small islands adjoining. Notwithstanding the prox- 
imity of the Asiatic islands, they have not as yet fur- 
nished any species intimately related to the paradise 
birds ; yet in the New Holland genus Ptiloris, we have 
a bird so closely related to this family, that we know 
not whether, in fact, it does not belong to it. The flying 
phalangers of Australasia seem to be represented in 
New Guinea by the genus Cuscus of M. Lesson. The 
affinity between the zoology of the two countries is 
established in various ways. The great crab-eaters 
(Dacelo Leach), the bald-faced honey-suckers (Philedon 
Cuv.), the helmet-crows (Barrita Cuv.), and the Vanga 
shrikes (Vanga Tem.), are so many indications of Aus- 
tralian ornithology. The carinated flycatchers (Mon- 
archa H. and V.) again, no less than all the preceding 
groups, occur both in New Guinea and in New Hol- 
land, but are unknown in any other country. The 
splendid promerops (Epimachus Cuv.), the paradise 
birds, and the king oriole (Sericulus chrysocephalus Sw.) 
are peculiar to this first division. 
(168.) The great island of New Holland, or rather 
Australia Proper, may be looked upon as the centre of 
Australian zoology, since the geographic range of its 
animals is circumscribed even more strictly than those 
of New Guinea. The kangaroos and the duckbills 
(Ornithorhynchus), for instance, are only found here 
and in Van Diemen’s Land: the ground parrakeets 
(Pezoporus Ill.), the lyre-tail (Menura Sw.), the typi- 
cal honeysuckers, the flat-tailed lories (Platycercus 
H. and V.), the superb warblers (Malurus Vieil.), and 
several others among the perching birds, might be in- 
stanced as purely Australian groups. The genus Pa- 
chycephala Sw., or great-headed chatterers, are entirely 
