GENERAL RESULTS ON EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 27 



Falco is now restricted, are the most typical group of 

 their family : of these the kestrel, and five others, have 

 their chief metropolis in the European province. The 

 whole of North America has hitherto produced hut 

 four. Le Vaillant enumerates the same number from 

 Southern and Central Africa. Those of Asia Proper are 

 not known J but only two are furnished by the vast 

 regions of Australia. Now, if we merely look to these 

 respective numbers, the difference is sufficiently dis- 

 proportionate : but when the great inferiority of the 

 European province, to those of America, Africa, and 

 Australia, in point of extent, are taken into the account, 

 the great proportion of these eminently typical species in 

 Europe is particularly striking. The genus Lanius is 

 strictly typical of its own family. In Europe we have 

 certainly five, and probably six, species; while only 

 three inhabit the whole of the New World. In Africa, 

 Le Vaillant discovered five ; but two of these, from- 

 having their chief metropolis in the heart of Europe, 

 cannot be considered as characteristic of the former 

 continent. The manifest preponderance of genera in 

 the European range is further illustrated by the following 

 fact : — The total number of species among birds, exist- 

 ing in collections, may be safely estimated at 6OOO, 

 since it has been asserted that the Museum of Berlin 

 alone contains that number. These have been referred 

 to about 380 genera ; but as several of these genera 

 comprise others not yet characterised, we will estimate 

 the number at 400 : this would leave 1 5 species to 

 each generic group ; whlie, if the ornithology of the 

 European range is alone considered, the proportion 

 which the genera bear to the species is no more than 

 as one to three. 



(37.) The above facts serve to illustrate a remarkable 

 analogy between the distribution of the feathered tribes, 

 and the various races of mankind inhabiting the Eu- 

 ropean, or rather the Caucasian, province. A modern 

 writer of no mean authority, and to whom the above 

 facts were entirely unknown^ when speaking of the 



