204 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part in. 



one to East Africa, while twenty-seven are peculiar to Palestine. 

 It is evident therefore that an unusual number of East African 

 birds have extended their range to this congenial district, but 

 most of these are desert species and hardly true Ethiopians, 

 and do not much interfere with the general Palaearctic character 

 of the whole assemblage. As an illustration of how wide-spread 

 are many of the Palaearctic forms, we may add, that seventy- 

 nine species of land birds and fifty-five of water birds, are com- 

 mon to Palestine and Britain. The Oriental and Ethiopian 

 genera Pycnonotus and Nectarinea are found here, while Bcssornis 

 and Dromolcca are characteristically Ethiopian. Almost all the 

 other genera are Palaearctic. 



Persia is another remote region generally associated with the 

 idea of Oriental and almost tropical forms, but which yet undoubt- 

 edly belongs to the Palsearctic region. Mr. Blanford's recent 

 collections- in this country, with other interesting information, is 

 summarised in Mr. Elwes's paper on the " Geographical Distri- 

 bution of Asiatic Birds " (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 647). No less 

 than 127 species are found also in Europe, and thirty- seven 

 others belong to European genera ; seven are allied to birds of 

 Central Asia or Siberia, and fifteen to those of North-East Africa, 

 while only three are purely of Indian affinities. This shows a 

 preponderance of nearly nine-tenths of Paleearctic forms, which 

 is fully as much as can be expected in any country near the 

 limits of a great region. 



Reptiles and Amphibia. — The climatal conditions being here 

 more favourable to these groups, and the genera being often of 

 limited range, we find some peculiar, and several very interesting 

 forms. Bhinechis, a genus of Colubrine snakes, is found only in 

 South ' Europe ; Trogonophis, one of the Aniphisbaenians — 

 curious snake-like lizards — is known only from North Africa ; 

 Psammosaurus, belonging to the water lizards (Varanidae) is 

 found in North Africa and North -West India ; Psammodromus, 

 a genus of Lacertidae, is peculiar to South Europe ; Hyalosaurus, 

 belonging to the family Zonuridae, is a lizard of especial in- 

 terest, as it inhabits North Africa while its nearest ally is the 

 Ophisaurus or " glass snake " of North America ; the family of 



