CHAP. XXI.] 



NEW ZEALAND. 



453 



cassowaries and emus, and we have distinct indications of a 

 former land extension towards ]!^ortli Australia and E"ew Guinea, 

 Avhich is exactly what we require for the original entrance of 

 the struthious type into the INew Zealand area. 



Winged Birds and loiuer Vertebrates of Neiu Zealand. — Having 

 given a pretty full account of the New Zealand fauna else- 

 where ^ I need only here point out its bearing on the hypo- 

 thesis now advanced, of the former land-connection having been 

 with North Australia, New Guinea, and the Western Pacific 

 Islands, rather than with the temperate regions of Australia. 



Of the Australian genera of birds, which are found also in 

 New Zealand, almost every one ranges also into New Guinea 

 or the Pacific Islands, while the few that do not extend beyond 

 Australia are found in its northern districts. As regards the 

 peculiar New Zealand genera, all whose affinities can be traced 

 are allied to birds which belong to the tropical pcirts of the 

 Australian region ; while the starling family, to which four of 

 the most remarkable New Zealand birds belong (the genera 

 Creadion, Heterolocha, and Callgeas), is totally wanting in 

 temperate Australia and is comparatively scarce in the entire 

 Australian region, but is abundant in the Oriental region, with 

 which New Guinea and the Moluccas are in easy communication. 

 It is certainly a most suggestive fact that there are more than 

 sixty genera of birds peculiar to the Australian continent (with 

 Tasmania), many of them almost or quite confined to its tempe- 

 rate portions, and that no single one of these should be repre- 

 sented in temperate New Zealand.^ The affinities of the living 

 and more highly organised, no less than those of the extinct and 

 wingless birds, strikingly accord with the line of communication 

 indicated by the deep submarine bank connecting these temperate 

 islands with the tropical parts of the Australian region. 



The reptiles, so far as they go, are quite in accordance with 



1 Geographical Distrihution of Animals, Vol. I., p. 450. 



2 In my Geographical Distrihution of Animals (I. p. 541) I have given 

 two peculiar Australian genera {OrtJionyx and Tribonyx) as occurring in 

 New Zealand. But tlie former has been found in New Guinea, while the 

 New Zealand bird is considered to form a distinct genus, Clitonyx; and 

 the latter inhabits Tasmania, and was recorded from New Zealand through 

 an error. (See IZ>/s, 1873, p. 427.) - 



