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president’s address. 
as San Christo val, and across Australia to Norfolk Island, New 
Caledonia, and the Loyalties. 
One other Polynesian species of Halcyon may be regarded as a 
continental species, Halcyon vacjcins, which inhabits New Zealand 
and Lord Howe Island : the rest are all island forms with very 
restricted ranges which do not overlap each other. 
Halcyon sacra extends from the New Hebrides across the Fiji 
groups to the Friendly Islands. 
Halcyon platyrostra is only known from Upolu and Savai, the 
two largest islands of the Samoan group. 
Halcyon pealii is supposed to be confined to the island of 
Tutuila, one of the little islands belonging to the Samoan group. 
Halcyon venevatus is found on Tahiti, and Halcyon albifrons on 
Iluaheine, another of the Society Islands. 
Halcyon tristrami is confined to New Britain and Halcyon 
cinnamomina is only known with certainty to occur on the 
Marianne Islands. 
The most interesting point in this distribution is the difference 
between continental species with their large areas of distribution 
which frequently overlap those of allied species, and island species 
with their small areas of distribution which very rarely overlap 
those of allied species. 
A second and equally interesting point is that the Malay 
Archipelago (like the British Islands) must be regarded as a part 
of the adjacent continent. They have obviously only become 
islands since the introduction of their present avifauna ; they 
are rarely separated from the continent by sea deeper than one 
hundred fathoms ; and the fact that mammals are found upon 
them seems to prove that they have been elevated at least one 
hundred fathoms higher than they now are, since the development 
of mammals. 
On the other hand the Polynesian Islands contain no indigenous 
mammals, and their avifauna consists of the waifs and strays which 
have been fortunate enough to find in them a home when forced to 
emigrate by some great catastrophe. They are modern islands 
(with the possible exception of the Sandwich Islands) and have 
