Vol. I., No.5, SEPTEMBER, 1882.1 
ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
ee 
bY RROK. hast W.. LULTON. 
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That different countries and different seas are inhabited by 
different kinds of animals has been known for centuries, but it is 
only during the last fifty years that naturalists have been able to 
form correct notions about the geographical limits of the various 
faunas, and so lay the foundations of a true zoological geography. 
In discussing the subject the question at once arises—Have the 
different groups of animals the same geographical limits, or must 
we record separately the distribution of each? But this question 
cannot as yet be answered. Mr. Wallace, who has done so much 
for this branch of natural history, is of opinion that the regions 
founded on the distribution of the birds and mammals must apply 
to all classes of animals, and says “ it is certainly not convenient 
or instructive to have a distinct set of regions established for each 
class or order in the animal and vegetable kingdom.” If this 
opinion should turn out to be true, it will simplify matters very 
much, but it seems quite possible that some of the lower orders 
of animals, which must have been widely. spread during the 
mesozoic era, may have different areas of distribution from those 
of the higher orders, which only came into existence in the cai- 
nozoic era. Mr. Wallace also ignores altogether the marine pro- 
vinces, which necessarily supplement the land regions and differ 
from them considerably. So different, indeed, are the land and 
marine districts, that it will be necessary to consider them sepa- 
rately ; and, as far more attention has been given to the distri- 
bution of terrestrial animals than to those inhabiting the sea, it 
will be better to begin with the land regions. 
Passing over the earlier attempts of Buffon, Fabricius, Latreille, 
Kirby, and Prichard, which, although valuable as establishing 
the fact that a zoological geography was possible, are of little 
use to us now, we come to Mr. W. Swainson, who, in 1835, pro- 
posed to divide the land into five provinces, each inhabited by a 
distinct variety of the human race, as well as by different 
animals ; but at the same time saying that his provinces did not 
admit of accurate definition.* | His provinces were the follow- 
ing :—1. European or Caucasian, including Europe, Asia Minor,and 
the shores of the Mediterranean. 2. Asiatic or Mongolian, com- 
prising Asia east of the Ural Mountains, as far south as Java and 
Sumatra. 3. American, both North and South America. 4. 
Ethiopian or African, comprising Africa south of the Desert of 
* Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals.—Lardner’s Cabinet 
Cyclopedia, 
