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. 



It 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 I 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 

 palseontological 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 tuherculatus), 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 

 related to bats living in South America. 



