ones. There is abundant evidence that the struggle for existence in South Amer- 

 ica has been far less severe than in North America. 



The Holarctic Region, as the name implies, includes all of North America, 

 Europe, Asia north of India, and the Himalaya mountains, northern Africa where 

 the great Sahara forms the natural boundary, and all islands belonging to the 

 north temperate and north frigid zones. Many have divided this great belt into 

 Palearctic and Nearctic, but the intermingling of species between northeast 

 Siberia and Alaska seems to make such a distinction impracticable. But these dis- 

 tinctions should be and are retained in the divisions of the Holarctic. When we 

 understand that at least one-third of the species found in the Nearctic are also 

 found in the Palearctic, we shall understand why these two are grouped under 

 one region. There are no orders, and there seem to be no families which are found 

 in the Holarctic and nowhere else. Indeed, it is difficult to find even genera which 

 do not have some species ranging into the Neotropical, Ethiopian or Indian. But 

 among the species we fmd many. Indeed, there are few species which nest in 

 both the Holarctic and in the regions bounding it on the south, and many of these 

 are found only on the southern boundaries of the Holarctic. In our part of the 

 Holarctic, that is, the Nearctic, the familiar birds about us do not nest also in 

 the tropical regions. 



The Ethiopian Region, as the name suggests, includes the whole of Africa 

 except that portion north of the Sahara desert, and Arabia and Egypt, with 

 Madagascar and other islands in the immediate vicinity. It seems hardly necessary 

 to even mention the forms that are peculiar to this peculiar region. Even the 

 word Africa brings trooping to our minds a whole continent of peculiarities in 

 more realms than one. Here we find the Ostrich, the plantain eaters, the colies 

 and several other families — nine in all. Of the lower groups there are the rollers, 

 bee-eaters, horn-bills, the curious secretary-bird and many others. It is signifi- 

 cant that among the Passerine birds there are but three families that are peculiar. 

 So on the whole, this region has not developed so rapidly as the Holarctic. There 

 has not been the intense struggle for supremacy here which we see in the north 

 temperate and higher regions. 



The Indian region completes the list. Broadly speaking, this region com- 

 prises that part of Asia which lies east of the Indus river south of the Himalaya 

 mountains except the eastern half of the drainage basin of the Yang-tse-kiang 

 river, reaching the coast just south of Shanghai, including the island of Formosa, 

 the Philippines, Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Ceylon. This is the Oriental Region 

 of Wallace. There are, apparently, but two families of birds' peculiar to this 

 region : the bulbuls and the broad-bills : but there are very many genera and 

 species found nowhere else in the world. The king-crows, sun-birds, swallow- 

 shrikes, argus pheasant, jungle fowl and the well-known peacocks belong here. 

 Very many of the birds of this region are gaudily colored and striking in 

 appearance. 



Each of these great regions, except possibly New Zealand, are readily divis- 

 ible into sub-regions, and these again into areas of lesser extent, until each fauna 

 may be assigned its proper place. Thus in the Holarctic Region we recognize the 



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