54 



ISLAND LIFE 



PART I 



portion of humming-birds, tanagers and parrots. The zoology 

 is therefore thoroughly Neotropical, although somewhat 

 poor ; and it has a number of peculiar forms of strictly Neo- 

 tropical types — as the chinchillas, alpacas, &c., which are 

 not found in the tropical regions except in the high Andes. 



Comjmrison of Zoological Regions with the Geogra]ohical 

 Divisions of the Globe. — Having now completed our survey 

 of the great zoological regions of the globe, we find that 

 they do not differ so much from the old geographical 

 divisions as our first example might have led us to suppose. 

 Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, and South 

 America, really correspond, each to a zoological region, but 

 their boundaries require to be modified more or less 

 considerably ; and if we remember this, and keep their 

 extensions or limitations always in our mind, we may use 

 the terms " South American " or " North American," as 

 being equivalent to Neotropical and Nearctic, without 

 much inconvenience, while " African " and " Australian " 

 equally well serve to express the zoological type of the 

 Ethiopian and Australian regions. Europe and Asia 

 require more important modifications. The European 

 fauna does indeed well represent the Palsearctic in all its 

 main features, and if instead of Asia we say tropical Asia 

 we have the Oriental region very fairly defined ; so that 

 the relation of the geographical with the zoological pri- 

 mary divisions of the earth is sufficiently clear. In order 

 to make these relations visible to the eye and more easily 

 remembered, we will put them into a tabular form : 



Regions. Geographical Equivalent. 



Palsearctic Europe, with north temperate Africa and Asia. 



Ethiopian Africa (south of the Sahara) with Madagascar. 



Oriental Tropical Asia, to Philippines and Java. 



Australian ... Australia, with Pacific Islands, Moluccas, &c. 



Nearctic North America, to North Mexico. 



Neotropical . . . South America, with tropical N. America and W. Indies. 



The following arrangement of the regions will indicate 

 their geographical position, and to a considerable extent 

 their relation to each other. 



N E A R C T I C P AL^ARCTIC 



I I 



I Oriental 



Ethiopian | 



Neo- I 



Tropical Australian 



