GEOGKAPHICAL DISTEIBUTIOlSr. 15 



are the Curassows, Humming Birds, Tyrants, Tanagers, Piculules, and Ant 

 Thrushes; while among the smaller groups equally defined are the Tapaculos, 

 Toucans, Jacamars, Motmots, Todies, Trumpeters, and Screamers, besides such 

 isolated forms as the Seriemas and the Sun Bitterns. 

 Its subdivisions are as follows : — 



(a) The Patagonian suhregion, extending from Cape Horn to Bahia Blanca on 

 the east coast, thence N.W. to Mendoza and so northwards along the eastern and 

 higher slopes of the Andes, crossing the equator and returning along the western 

 slopes seaward to Truxillo in lat. 7° S. Of peculiar genera it has one belong- 

 ing to the RheidcB and two to the peculiar family of Game Plovers (Thinocoridce), 

 and of these almost restricted are the Plantcutters, Tyrants, and Screamers. In 

 the Falkland Islands there is a peculiar species of water bird (Chloephaga), 

 and about half a dozen species of Penguins resort to these islands for breeding 

 quarters. 



(b) The Brazilian suhregion follows the foregoing from Bahia to Mendoza and 

 continues to Potosi in Bolivia, then N.E. (avoiding watershed of the Amazons) 

 to the Paranahyba, through or along which it probably makes its way to the 

 Atlantic. It has no birds peculiar to itself, but is distinguished by the presence 

 of the Rhea, Cariamas, and Plantcutters. 



(c) The Amazordon suhregion is continuous southwards with the Brazilian 

 boundary. The western frontier (seems to turn off before the eastern confines of 

 the Patagonian suhregion are reached and to leave a space intervening) pursues 

 a northward course at a lower level along the western bank of the Huallaga, and 

 crossing the Amazon River about long. 77° W. and lat. 5° S., pursues its way to 

 the mouth of the Orinoco. Two families are here peculiar — the Hoatzins and the 

 Trumpeters. There is another genus {Chenalopex) belonging to the Geese, not 

 found elsewhere in the New World, but common to the Ethiopian region. 



(d) The suh-Andean suhregion. This includes the narrow slip left between the 

 Amazonian and Patagonian subregions, and extends from the frontiers of Bolivia 

 to the table-land of Ecuador, lapping the western coast line to Truxillo, embracing 

 the Galapagos Islands to the W., and on the E. following the Amazonian boundary 

 to the Atlantic. It includes the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and those lying 

 on the N. coast of S. America, Nueva Granada, and Venezuela, till it reaches the 

 Central American suhregion in Panama. There is only one family of birds 

 peculiar to it, composed of a single species — the Guacharo or Oil Bird of Trinidad. 

 It is especially rich in Tanagers and different kinds of Humming Birds. In Gala- 

 pagos there is a peculiar species of Buzzard and possibly a Penguin also. 



(e) The Central American suhregion extends as far northwards as Guayamas in 

 the Gulf of California and eastwards to the Rio Grande, the boundary between 

 Texas and Mexico. The birds of two subregions here, and it has no family of 

 birds peculiar to itself. The American Partridges and Quails (Odontophorince) are 

 well represented. 



' (/) The Antillean suhregion — the Antilles excepting Trinidad and Tobago. 

 The family of Todies is entirely confined to this suhregion. 



3. The Nearctic Ebqion (veos — new, a/OKTos^north), the northern division of 

 the New World, includes the rest of the American continent, the Aleutian 

 Islands and Bermudas, as well as the circumpolar lands lying westward of long. 

 60° W. and Greenland. Most of its birds are common either to the Neotropical 



