YoKKSHlHK XATUHALISTS' UNToN. 
advocated, for in speaking oi" Western Palearctica or Europe, he 
declared that it possessed the most highly developed bird-fauna in 
the world, and one from which the weakest types had been generall}' 
eliminated, and that all the families of birds found therein consisted 
of stronger forms than those inhabiting other countries, so that the 
faculty of extending their range, and occupying other regions, was 
])ossessed in a greater degree than by the birds of any other country. 
He also regarded the Asiatic and North American birds, and the 
still more archaic and morphologically low species of South .America 
and Australia, as of inferior dominating power, and accepts the 
route fi-om Europe through Asia as the route of travel to the 
Malayan islands. 
The known distribution over the world of many families and genera 
of birds is entirely confirmatory of the location in Europe of the 
region of greatest evolutionary progress, and also of the correctness 
of tlie view as to the routes by which such distribution has been 
attained, while in accord with all other groups, the most primitive 
and archaic of existing or recently extinct birds, the Apteryx, the 
Dinornis, the ^^pyornis, the Khea, the Dodo, etc., were, or are now, 
restricted to the most isolated and distant oceanic islands or to the 
same remote and primitive countries in which all other ancient forms 
of life are now chiefly congregated ; while geologically we have 
evidences of the correctness of these assumptions, as in the Miocene 
deposits of Europe are found undeniable traces of the former occur- 
rence of the 'I'rogons, Jungle-fowl and other birds now characteristic 
of troi)ical Asia, along with Parrots, Plantain-eaters, etc., allied to 
forms now living in West Africa and elsewhere. 
The distribution of the true Jays ((rarruliis), which has been worked 
out in detail, conforms entirely to the. migratory routes already 
described, the P]uropean Jay being the latest evolved and the most 
dominant species : while those races which are now remote from 
their place of origin are of greater anti(juity and more primitive 
organization. 
The Marsh Tit furnishes in its distribution from Europe through 
Asia precisely the same evidence as to the route by which its 
dispersal has been effected, and much other similar and corroborative 
evidence could be adduced. 
The ( arrion and Hooded (Jrows, whether distinct species or merely 
races, show by their distribution how one race is slowly displacing 
another, and gradually expelling it from the European area, so that 
in Central Europe the weaker race has been compelled to take refuge 
in the ujountains, and generally is being gradually s(|ueezed into the 
outlying countries of Europe. 
I'^urther evidence has been afforded of the greater activity of the 
evolutionary po\ver in the North-Central European region, beyond 
tiiat of adjacent countries, by the precise and accurate methods of 
investigation and comparison, now ha.])pily becoming more in vogue 
