chap, iv.] ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS. 77 



islands, which, for reasons already stated, it is not advisable to 

 treat as a primary Zoological region. The theory of this ancient 

 continent and the light it may throw on existing anomalies of 

 distribution, will be more fully considered in the geographical 

 part of this work. 



Australian Region. — Mr. Sclater's original name seems pre- 

 ferable to Professor Huxley's, " Austral- Asian ; " the incon- 

 venience of which alteration is sufficiently shown by the fact 

 that Mr. Blyth proposed to use the very same term as an 

 appropriate substitute for the " Indian region " of Mr. Sclater. 

 Australia is the great central mass of the region ; it is by far the 

 richest in varied and highly remarkable forms of life ; and it 

 therefore seems in every way fitted to give a name to the region 

 of which it is the essential element. The limits of this region 

 in the Pacific are somewhat obscure, but as so many of the 

 Pacific Islands are extremely poor zoologically, this is not of 

 great importance. 



Sub-divisions of the Australian Region. — The first sub-region 

 is the Austro-Malayan, including the islands from Celebes and 

 Lombock on the west to the Solomon Islands on the east. The 

 Australian sub-region comes next, consisting of Australia and 

 Tasmania. The third, or Polynesian sub-region, will consist 

 of all the tropical Pacific Islands, and is characterized by 

 several peculiar genera of birds which are all allied to Australian 

 types. The fourth, consists of New Zealand with Auckland, 

 Chatham, and Norfolk Islands, and must be called the New 

 Zealand sub-region. 



The extreme peculiarities of New Zealand, due no doubt to 

 its great isolation and to its being the remains of a more 

 extensive land, have induced several naturalists to suggest that 

 it ought justly to form a Zoological region by itself. But the 

 inconveniences of such a procedure have been already pointed 

 out; and when we look at its birds as a whole (they being the 

 only class sufficiently well represented to found any conclusion 

 upon) we find that the majority of them belong to Australian 

 genera, and where the genera are peculiar they are most nearly 

 related to Australian types. The preservation in these islands 



