392 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part in. 



and among prevalent Oriental groups, Pycnonotidse (bulbuls), 

 Phyllornithidae (green bulbuls), and Megalsemidse (barbets) are 

 families whose absence is significant. Nine families are peculiar 

 to the region, or only just pass its limits in the case of single 

 species. These are Paridiseidse (paradise-birds), Meliphagidse 

 (honey-suckers), Menuridae (lyre-birds), Atrichidse (scrub-birds), 

 Cacatuidse (cockatoos), Platycercidse (broad-tailed and grass- 

 paroquets), Trichoglossida? (brush-tongued paroquets, Megapo- 

 diida? (mound-makers), and Casuariida? (cassowaries). There are 

 also eight very characteristic families, of which four, — Pachy- 

 cephalia (thick-headed shrikes), Campephagidse (caterpillar 

 shrikes), Diceeidse (flower-peckers), and Artamidse (swallow- 

 shrikes) — are feebly represented elsewhere, while the other four 

 — Ploceidas (weaver-finches), Alcredinidse (kingfishers), Podargidse 

 (frog-mouths), and ColumbidaB (pigeons) — although widely dis- 

 tributed, are here unusually abundant and varied, and (except 

 in the case of the Ploceidse) better represented in the Australian 

 than in any other region. Of all these the Meliphagidse (honey- 

 suckers) are the most peculiarly and characteristically Australian. 

 This family abounds in genera and species ; it extends into every 

 part of the region from Celebes and Lomhock on the west, to 

 the Sandwich Islands, Marquesas, and New Zealand on the east, 

 while not a single species overpasses its limits, with the excep- 

 tion of one {Ptilotis limbata) which abounds in all the islands of 

 the Timorese group, and has crossed the narrow strait from 

 Lombock to Baly ; but this can hardly be considered to impugn 

 the otherwise striking fact of wide diffusion combined with 

 strict limitation, which characterizes it. This family is the more 

 important, because, like the Trichoglossidas or brush-tongued 

 paroquets, it seems to have been developed in co-ordination with 

 that wealth of nectariferous flowering shrubs and trees which is 

 one of the marked features of Australian vegetation. It probably 

 originated in the extensive land-area of Australia itself, and 

 thence spread into all the tributary islands, where it has become 

 variously modified, yet always in such close adaptation to the 

 other great features of the Australian fauna, that it seems unable 

 to maintain itself when subject to the competition of the more 



