342 



GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. 



[PART IV. 



islands and sand-banks, and can evidently pass over a few miles 

 of sea with ease ; but the Nicobar bird is a very different case, 

 because none of the numerous intervening islands offer a single 

 example of the family. Instead of being a well-marked and 

 clearly differentiated form, as we should expect to find it if its 

 remote and isolated habitat were due to natural causes, it so 

 nearly resembles some of the closely-allied species of the Moluc- 

 cas and New Guinea, that, had it been found with them, it would 

 hardly have been thought specifically extinct. I therefore 

 believe that it is probably an introduction by the Malays, and 

 that, owing to the absence of enemies and general suitability of 

 conditions, it has thriven in the islands and has become slightly 

 differentiated in colour from the parent stock. The following is 

 the distribution of the genera at present known : — 



Talegallus (2 sp.), New Guinea and East Australia ; Mcgace- 

 phalon (1 sp.), East Celebes ; Lipoa (1 sp.), South Australia ; 

 Megapodius (16 sp.), Philippine Islands and Celebes, to Timor, 

 North Australia, New Caledonia, the Marian and Samoa Islands, 

 and probably every intervening island, — also a species (doubtfully 

 indigenous) in the Nicobar Islands. 



Family 91.— CEACLTLE. (12 Genera, 53 Species.) 



General Distribution. 



(Messrs. Sclater and Salvin's arrangement is here followed). 



The Cracidse, or Curassows and Guans, comprise the largest 

 and handsomest game-birds of the Neotropical region, where 

 they take the place of the grouse and pheasants of the Old 

 World. They are almost all forest-dwellers, and are a strictly 

 Neotropical family, only one species just entering the Nearctic 

 region as far as New Mexico. They extend southward to Para- 

 guay and the extreme south of Brazil, but none are found in the 



