GEOGEAPHICAI EELATIONS OF BIEDS. 249 



being found in the island of Ceram and one in North Australia. 

 Hornbills do not extend beyond the Solomon Islands* 



The Australian subregion proper has a very special Avifauna^ 

 for out of nearly five hundred land-birds not more than five 

 and twenty at the most are found elsewhere. Amongst the 

 more remarkable absolutely peculiar birds are the Lyre-bird 

 and the Scrub-birds {Ati-ichiidce), the only two species of Emeu, 

 and all the Bower-birds except the genera Chlamydodera and 

 Amblyornis, which are both found in New Guinea. It is also 

 the exclusive home of the mound-building genus Leijpoa. 



Australia has also a peculiar Bustard (Eupodotis). It is very 

 rich in Parrots, and has some peculiar forms. 



The Polynesian subregion, though one so extremely scattered, 

 has nevertheless a very uniform Avifauna. Amongst the most 

 noteworthy peculiar genera found therein are the Kagu (Rhino- 

 chetus) in New Caledonia, and the Tooth-billed Pigeon {Didun- 

 eulus) in the Samoan Islands, whence also comes a most peculiar 

 short- winged Water-hen (Pareudiastes). The Sandwich Islands 

 alone show any very marked distinction, possessing as they do all 

 the Drepanididm. They have twenty genera of small (Passerine) 

 Land Birds. One of them is the cosmopolitan genus of Eooks and 

 Crows (Corvus), but nine are absolutely peculiar to the Sandwich 

 Islands. Amongst them it is to be noted that there are species 

 (of the genera Aerulocercus and Ghcetoptila) of that specially 

 Australian family the Honey-suckers. There is also a peculiar 

 Coot and Groose. ^ In Phillip Island there is, or was, a Parrot 

 of the genus Nestor {N. productus), which is with this exception 

 a New-Zealand genus ; and a curious form of Water-hen, now 

 extinct {Notornis alba), seems to have been last seen alive in 

 Norfolk and Lord Howe's Islands. 



The New-Zealand subregion consists, as we have seen, princi- 

 pally of New Zealand, which, till the advent of man, may be 

 said to have been a very Paradise for Birds ; as then they 

 lorded it over the rest of the living world, having nothing to 

 fear from any beast of prey, hardly any kind of Mammal having 

 there existed. 



It was inhabited by the gigantic species of Binomis, now 

 extinct *, and by the extinct forms Palapteryx and Euryapteryoe. 

 The most characteristic living form is the Apteryx f, but one 

 also most remarkable is the Owl-like Parrot {Stringops). The 



* See ante, p. 238. t P. 64. 



