228 ` Transactions.—Zoology. 
continental fauna in its simplest state, and consequently in that state which 
is most advantageous for studying the mutual relations of the animals 
composing it. 
Both Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace call New Zealand an “ oceanic island” 
from a zoological point of view, owing to the absence of terrestrial Mammals, 
and the meagreness of its fauna and flora ; that is to say they consider it 
as an island that has never formed part of a continental area since its last 
emergence from the sea. But I think that the Struthious birds have certainly 
as much weight in determining this point as terrestrial Mammals, for they 
have no superior means of dispersion, and New Zealand also possesses a frog, 
which is one of the great characteristics of a continental fauna. From a 
geological point of view I do not see how any land, except volcanic and coral 
islands, could have originated except as part of a large continental upheaval. 
I think, therefore, that the New Zealand fauna may be correctly called the 
remnants of a continental fauna, and that a close study of it will throw great 
light on many of the most important, but at the same time most obscure, 
problems in zoology. It will, however, be long before this can be accomplished. 
The describing and naming of the different animals, which is the foundation 
upon which all other researches must rest, is as yet far from being completed ; 
the determination of what species are the original inhabitants, or the 
descendants of the original inhabitants, of the former continent, has hardly 
been attempted, but all this must be settled before any sound deductions can 
be drawn as to the reasons of extinction, variation, or permanency of type, of 
the animals. 
Tt is to this latter point that I wish to draw attention, not that I am in 
possession of information sufficient to prove any one, perhaps, of the points 
that I shall raise, but because I think that sufficient is known to establish 
with great probability the main features in the zoological history of these 
islands, and this sketch, which T now presume to offer you, will I hope induce 
others to examine the subject more in detail, and will give a systematic 
direction to their observations. I propose to take first the zoological evidence 
—to point out the principal facts that have to be accounted for, and the 
deductions that they lead to. I will then rapidly glance at the geological and 
paleontological evidence, and finally I will draw up from the whole the 
hypothesis that appears best able to account for all the phenomena. 
MAMMALIA. 
Of our two bats one (Scotophilus tuberculatus), although not found else- 
where, is closely allied to those of Australia, while the other (Mystacina 
velutina) forms the only species of a genus peculiar to New Zealand, but 
zia to bats living in South America. 
