CHAPTER III. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE FACTS OF DISTKIBUTION. — ZOOLOGICAL 

 REGIONS. 



The Geographical Divisions of the Globe do not correspond to Zoological 

 divisions — The range of British Mammals as indicating a Zoological 

 Region— Range of East Asian and North African Mammals— The 

 Range of British Birds— Range of East Asian Birds— The limits of the 



• Palgearctic Region — Characteristic features of the Pal^arctic Region — 

 Definition and characteristic groups of the Ethiopian Region — Of the 

 Oriental Region — Of the Austrahan Region— Of the Nearctic Region— 

 Of the Neotropical Region — Comparison of Zoological Regions with 

 the Geographical Divisions of the Globe. 



Having now obtained some notion of how animals are dispersed 

 over the earth's surface, whether as single species or as collected 

 in those groups termed genera, families, and orders, it will be 

 well, before proceeding further, to understand something of the 

 classification of the facts we have been considering, and some 

 of the simpler conclusions these facts lead to. 



We have hitherto described the distribution of species and 

 groups of animals by means of the great geographical divisions 

 of the globe in common use; but it will have been observed 

 that in hardly any case do these define the limits of anything 

 beyond species, and very seldom, or perhaps never, even those 

 accurately. Thus the term " Europe " will not give, with any 

 approach to accuracy, the range of any one genus of mammals 

 or birds, and perhaps not that of half-a-dozen species. Either 

 they range into Siberia, or Asia Minor, or Palestine, or North 

 Africa ; and this seems to be always the case when their area 



