250 Transactions — Zoology. 



C(ELENTERATA AND PROTOZOA. 



Of these veiy little is known. Our seven species of corals are all peculiar, 

 as also appear to be many species of Sertularians and sponges, but I know of 

 no facts among these lower animals that will help out the present investigation 

 except in the case of Cryptolaria^ a genns belonging to the family Sertularidce, 

 and consisting of two species, one of which is found in New Zealand and the 

 other in Madeira. 



Summary. 



If now we review the evidence adduced, and select the more important 

 points we find in the distribution of the Struthious birds, the frogs, fresh- 

 water fishes, several shells (such as Cyclina kroyeri, Mytilus niagellanicus, 

 Anomia alecto, Barhatia j^usilla, Chione stiitchburyi, and Ranella vexUhwi), 

 in the genus Ilemicojjs among the Centipedes, and Peripatus among the 

 Annelids, evidence of a former great extension of land in the Southern 

 Hemisj)here, for these cases cannot all be accounted for by drifting icebergs. 

 With the exception of the shells and two fresh-water fishes no species however 

 is common to New Zealand and South America on the one hand, nor to New 

 Zealand and South Africa on the other, for I omit from consideration the 

 species of marine fish, as they might perhaps have crossed at a later date. In 

 the frogs the genera, and in the birds the families, are different. This perhaps 

 indicates a very long interval since the separation of these countries took 

 place, but differentiation of form, even in closely allied species, is evidently a 

 very fallacious guide in judging of lapse of time, and a surer one is afforded us 

 in the absence of Mammalia from New Zealand, for it is evident that if the 

 Marsupials that now inhabit Australia, or the placental Mammals that inhabit 

 South America, had been in existence at the time of the distribution of the 

 Struthious birds some members would have found their way to New Zealand, 

 and would have remained upon it with the Moas. This antarctic continental 

 period must therefore have preceded the spread of the Mammalia into the 

 Southern Hemisphere. Besides this continental period we have evidence in 

 Eudyiiainis taitieiisis, Naultinus pacificus, A mphibola avellana, Musca taitensis, 

 and in the genera Ocydromus and Nestor, of a Polynesian continent quite 

 unconnected with Australia, but including Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, 

 and New Caledonia, while by Helix coniformis, H. rapida, H. radiaria and 

 H. vitrea, we can prove a close connection with the New Hebrides, Solomon 

 Islands, Louisade Archipelago, and the Admiralty Islands. By Nanina among 

 land shells, and Assiminea among fresh-water shells, we prove a connection 

 also with the Navigator and Friendly Islands, and these genera take us north 

 through the Molucca Islands, Celebes, Borneo and the Philippines, to China, 

 where we again come across many New Zealand species and genera. The 



