GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 13 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS. 



The surface of the globe has been divided by Mr. Sclater into six regions, 

 termed respectively, Australian, Neotropical, Nearctio, Palsearctic, Ethiopian, 

 and Indian. 



Wallace's Line. A strait some fifteen miles or so in width, and separating the 

 two fertile, but otherwise insignificant, islands of Bali and Lombok, makes such 

 a frontier as can hardly be shown to exist elsewhere. The former of these islands 

 belongs to the Indian region, and the latter to the Australian, and between them 

 there is no true transition, that is, no species are common to both, which cannot 

 be easily accounted for by the various accidents and migrations that in course of 

 time must have tended to mingle the productions of islands so close to one another. 



1. The Australian Region is divided from the Indian by the narrow but 

 ■deep channel (Wallace's Line) which separates the small islands of Bali and 

 Lombok, and determines the boundary between two entirely distinct portions of 

 the earth's surface. A line is drawn midway along this channel, and carried 

 I^.N.E. up the Straits of Macassar, dividing Celebes on E. from Borneo on W., 

 and continued N.E. between the Philippines and the Ladrones to the N. of the 

 Sandwich Islands. Southwards from Lombok Strait, the boundary rounds the 

 W. coast of Australia, and then runs S.E., to include New Zealand and its 

 dependencies. After encircling the Low Archipelago and the Marquesas, the 

 L'ne travels N.W. to the N. of the Sandwich Islands, and so completes the 

 demarcation of the region. The region so defined does not comprise the Aleutian 

 Islands in Bering Sea, Japan, or the Loochoo Islands. 



The Australian region possesses the most exceptional fauna, both with respect 

 to groups here found and found nowhere else, and with respect to widely difiused 

 groups which are here either remarkable by their absence or by having their 

 headquarters within it. Thus the whole family of Birds of Paradise, the Bower 

 Birds, the Lyre Birds, the Broad-billed, the Brush-tongued, and the Grass Parrakeets, 

 the Emeus, the Cassowaries, the Apteryx, and the Kagu are absolutely peculiar to 

 this region, while most of the Cockatoos, the Honey-Suckers (one exception), and 

 Megapodes (two exceptions) are almost so. 



Among birds which are feebly represented elsewhere, and here attain the maxi- 

 mum of development, are the Thick-Headed Shrikes, Caterpillar-Eaters, Flower- 

 Peckers, and Swallow Ely-Catchers. Among groups of wider distribution, the 

 Weaver Birds, Moreporks, Kingfishers, and Pigeons obtain a degree of prominence 

 and beauty which is elsewhere unequalled. Two-fifths of the genera of Pigeons 

 ' ^including the great Crowned and the Tooth-billed) and ten genera of Kingfishers 

 are peculiar to the region. Among those entirely wanting are the Bulbuls, 

 Barbets, Vultures, and Pheasants. There are but few Thrushes or Woodpeckers. 



The Australian region may be said to have four subregions, viz. — 



(a) TTie Papuan subregion, with New Guinea as a centre, comprises Lombok, 

 the Timorese, the Celebesian, and the Moluccan groups. Out of 350 species of 

 land birds, 300 are peculiar to it. Generally they are remarkable for brilliancy 

 of plumage, and twelve genera are decorated with metallic covering of the 

 feathers. Its chief features are the extraordinary development of the Casso- 

 •waries, the richness and specialisation of the Kingfishers, its Parrots, Pigeons, and 



