1839.1 On the Distribution of European Birds. 27 



tion from Northern India, from one from Southern India ; or a col- 

 lection from the Malayan Peninsula from one from any other part 

 of Asia. The same holds true in regard to collections from different 

 parts of the American Continents. Moreover, in the Continent of 

 Australasia we have an ornithology in the neighbourhood of Port Jack- 

 son quite different from that we find at Moreton Bay. Thus the 

 Alectura lathami, Gray, 19 found at the latter, is not found in 

 the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, its place being there supplied 

 by the Menura lyra Sh. or M. Novce Hollandice Lath. It has 

 also been shewn by Professor Jameson, that even in some of the 

 larger islands we have a zoology quite different from that we 

 meet with in the adjoining Continents. Thus he states — In the 

 island of Sumatra, which is only a secondary one in point of 

 magnitude in the Archipelago of Notasia, we meet with the Ele- 

 phant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, &c.,- but the species of animals are 

 often different from those in the neighbouring Continents — Thus the 

 Rhinoceros of Sumatra is different from that of Asia. Madagascar 

 produces many species of snakes, which are found no where else. 

 The inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land are very different from those 

 of New Holland, and the greater number of mammiferous animals and 

 reptiles are specifically different from those met with in the neigh- 

 bouring Continents. — That many of the islands of the Indian Archipe- 

 lago have a zoology peculiar to themselves, has been proved by the 

 researches of Raffles, Horsfield, Sonnerat, Leschenault, Reinwardt, 

 pussumier, Duvaucel, Diard, Relanger, Kuhl, &c, all of whom 

 have increased our knowledge more or less in regard to them. Nor 

 are the islands farther in the south without their own peculiar 

 Fauna. Thus we find in New Zealand not only a great many 

 species, but even many genera which are found to exist no where 

 else. It is here that we meet with that most extraordinary bird the 

 Apteryx Australis, first described by Shaw, but whose existence has 

 more than once been called in question, 20 although erroneously, as has 

 been pointed out by Yarrel. 21 



In New Guinea we also meet with a particular Fauna. It is 

 here that we find the splendid group of Paradise Birds. We have 



19 Proc. Zool. Soc. 



20 Lesson Tracte d' Ornith. p» 12. et Man. d' Ornith. vol. ii. p. 210. 



21 Tran. Zool. Soc. vol. i. and Zool. Proceed, pt. i. pp. 24, 80. Of this bird 

 there are now several specimens in Europe. In the collection of the Zoological 

 Society of London we saw one specimen, in the Liverpool collection there is an im- 

 perfect specimen, and we believe that there is a very fine specimen in the collection 

 of the Earl of Derby, from which Yarrel drew up his description and made his drawing. 

 See Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. i. 



