JO KIEL!) AND FOREST. 



tacit assumption of originality. The major combinations, however, 

 so far as animal geography was involved, were peculiar to Mr. Sclater, 

 and, for most classes of animals, were extremely unfortunate. It is 

 but just to add that subsequently, when his attention had been re-di- 

 rected to the subject by Prof. Huxley's writings, this objectional fea- 

 ture of the classification was appreciated by the author himself, yet he 

 has meanwhile been not without followers. 



Mr. Sclater's views call for mention here simply because they have 

 been accepted and pushed into great prominence by Mr. Wallace in 

 his recent work, and by several other naturalists, whose experience 

 might have taught them better. Whatever is true in them had long 

 before been apprehended, and what was new has been rejected by those 

 best qualified to judge. The ignorance of the literature of zoological 

 geography on the part of the gentlemen in question may perhaps ac- 

 count for the claims of originality, which have been put forth and 

 recognized in respect to the regions accepted. Mr. Wallace has long 

 been known as an adventurous and scientific traveller in many regions, 

 an excellent collector in several deparments of natural history, but 

 especially of his birds, and, more than all, as one to whom Mr. Dar- 

 win himself accredits the discovery of the law of natural selection 

 simultaneously with himself. He has published several notable vol- 

 umes of travel and essays, and many articles in various periodicals, 

 chiefly on birds and insects. He is also entitled to the honor of 

 having first clearly defined the boundaries between the Australian and 

 Indian realms, and recognized in the inconsiderable strait which inter- 

 venes between the islands of Lombok and Bali the true dividing line, 

 very properly designated as Wallace's line or strait, separating the 

 great regions indicated. His experience in the field thus qualified him 

 for considering and giving weight to a certain class of facts. His 

 writings and his own admissions, however, prove that he was but lit- 

 tle acquainted with the structure and classification of animals, and 

 little imbued with taxonomic tact. Prepared as he was, nevertheless, 

 he undertook the formidable task of a work upon " The Geographical 

 Distribution of Animals." The title-page would naturally lead us to 

 suppose that he meant to consider the problems of zoological ge- 

 ography in general, but in the preface he states that it "is an at- 

 tempt to collect and summarize the existing information on the distrir 

 bution of land animals " (jj. v). When, however, we examine the 



