TEE ORIENTAL REGION AND ITS POSITION. 751 



those who have not studied the question in its more scientific sense ; 

 although I do not in any waylay claim to auythint^: original of scientific 

 importance in this paper. 



As a local Society we have never detinitely adopted any exact limits 

 to the reo-iou to which our investigations shall be confined, but, 

 although we Lave constantly published papers dealing with subjeets or 

 collections from places outside the boundaries of tiie Oriontal region- 

 such, for instance, as Aden, Somaliland or the Persian Gulf— it is with 

 this region that we are more particularly concerned. 



It will be as well, I think, to first of all glance over the several 

 zoological regions into which naturalists have divided the terrestrial 

 surface of the globe, for we shall then be able to better understand 

 the position of the Oriental region in the scheme when we come to con- 

 sider it in detail. 



It is needless, I fancy, to remark that it was long ago recognised 

 that the great geographical or political divisions of the globe in com- 

 mon use do not correspond to its zoological divisions ; but it was not 

 until after the middle of last century that a more or less practical 

 scheme was published by Mr. P. L. Sclater, the present Secretary of 

 the Zoological Society of London, followed up and developed by the 

 great work of Mr. A. K. Wallace, which, with some modifications, has 

 Tince been generally adopted. This division of the world into zoolo- 

 gical regions was originally based by Mr. Sclater on the distribution 

 of representative orders, families and genera of birds, and that lie was 

 in the main correct is proved by the fact that the six regions that he 

 established have met with very general acceptance at the hands of 

 those who specially study other groups of animals. At the same time 

 it must be borne in mind that a division, which is suitable for oae class 

 of animals, is not by any means necessarily applicable to other groups. 

 And still less so for plants, for such configurations of the earth's sur- 

 face, in the way of oceans, mountain ranges, deserts, &c., which may, 

 for instance, be insuperable barriers to mammals, may not be so to 

 birds, reptiles, fishes, molluscs or insects. But the fact that we find 

 in each of the recognised regions the whole fauna more or less typical 

 of that particular region, is sufficient justification for adopting them 

 as a means of assisting our investigations of the zoology of the globe. 

 The six regions may be briefly described as follows :— 

 (1) FAL^ARCTic.~The whole of Europe and of Asia north of tbe 

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