60 DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. [part I. 



along with Australasia and South America ; and that a Circum- 

 polar Province might be conveniently recognised as of equal 

 rank with the Palsearctic and Nearctic provinces. 



In 1866, Mr. Andrew Murray published a large and copiously 

 illustrated volume on the Geographical Distribution of Mam- 

 mals, in w r hich he maintains that the great and primary 

 mammalian regions are only four : 1st. The Palsearctic region 

 of Mr. Sclater, extended to include the Sahara and Nubia ; 

 2nd. the Tndo-African region, including the Indian and Ethiopian 

 regions of Mr. Sclater; 3rd. the Australian region (unaltered); 

 4th. the American region, including both North and South 

 America. These are the regions as described by Mr. Murray, 

 but his coloured map of " Great Mammalia"n Eegions " shows 

 all Arctic America to a little south of the Isothermal of 32° 

 Fahr. as forming with Europe and North Asia one great region. 



At the meeting of the British Association at Exeter in 1869, 

 Mr. W. T. Blanford read a paper on the Fauna of British India, 

 in which he maintained that a large portion of the peninsula 

 of India had derived its Fauna mainly from Africa ; and that the 

 term " Indian region " of Mr. Sclater was misleading, because 

 India proper, if it belongs to it at all, is the least typical portion 

 of it. He therefore proposes to call it the " Malayan region," 

 because in the Malay countries it is most highly developed. 

 Ceylon and the mountain ranges of Southern India have marked 

 Malay affinities. 



In 1871 Mr. E. Blyth published in Nature "A suggested new 

 Division of the Earth into Zoological Regions," in which he 

 indicates seven primary divisions or regions, subdivided into 

 twenty-six sub -regions. The seven regions are defined as 

 follows : 1. The Boreal region ; including the whole of the 

 Palaearctic and Nearctic regions of Mr. Sclater along with the 

 West Indies, Central America, the whole chain of the Andes, 

 with Chili and Patagonia. 2. The Columbian region ; consisting 

 of the remaining part of South America. 3. The Ethiopian 

 region ; comprising besides that region of Mr. Sclater, the valley 

 of the Jordan, Arabia, and the desert country towards India, 

 with all the plains and table lands of India and the northern 



