456 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi 



No country on the globe can offer such an extraordinary set of 

 birds as are here depicted. 



Bcptiles. — These consist ahiiost wholly of lizards, there being 

 no land-snakes and only one frog. Twelve species of lizards are 

 known, belonging to three genera, one of wliich is peculiar, as 

 are all the species. Hinulia, with two species, and Mocoa, with 

 four species (one of which extends to the Chatham Islands), 

 belong to the Scincidte ; both are very wide-spread genera and 

 occur in Australia. The peculiar genus Xault inns,^\ii\\ six species, 

 belongs to the Geckotidfe, a family spread over the whole world. 



The most extraordinary and interesting reptile of Xew Zea- 

 land is, however, the Hattcria 2'>undata, a lizard-like animal 

 living in holes, and found in small islands on the north-east 

 coast, and more rarely on the main land. It is somewhat inter- 

 mediate in structure between lizards and crocodiles, and also has 

 bird-like characters in the form of its ribs. It constitutes, not 

 only a distinct family, lihyncocephalidie, but a separate order of 

 reptiles, Rhyncocephalina. It is quite isolated from all other 

 members of the class ; and is probably a slightly moditied repre- 

 sentative of an ancient and generalised form, which has been 

 superseded in larger areas by the more specialized lizards and 

 saurians. 



The only representatives of the Opliidia are two sea-snakes 

 of Australian and Polynesian species, and of no geographical 

 interest. 



Ampliihia. — The solitary frog indigenous to New Zealand, 

 l)elongs to a peculiar genus, Liopdma, and to the family Bom- 

 biiratorida', otherwise confined to Europe and temperate South 

 America. 



Fresh- icafcr Fishes. — There are, according to Captain Hutton, 

 15 species of fresh-water fish in New Zealand, belonging to 7 

 genera ; six species, and one genus (Retrojmma), being peculiar. 

 Relropiniia richardsoni belongs to the Salmonidre, and is the 

 only example of that family occurring in the Southern hemi- 

 sphere, wlierc it is confined to New Zealand and the Chatham 

 Islands, The wide distribution of Galaxias attenuatus — from the 



