CHAP. XVIII.] 
BIRDS. 
315 
Family 67. — ALCED1NID/E. (19 Genera, 125 Species.) 
Genep.il Distribution. 
Neotropical 
Sub-regions. 
Nearctic 
Sub-regions. 
Pal.-e ARCTIC 
Sub- regions. 
Ethiopian 
Sub-regions. 
Oriental 
Sub- regions. 
Australian 
Sub-regions. 
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 - 
, 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 
1 . 2 .3 . 4 
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 
The Kingfishers are distributed universally, but very un- 
equally, over the globe, and in this respect present some of the 
most curious anomalies to be found among birds. They have 
their metropolis in the eastern half of the Malay Archipelago 
(our first Australian sub-region), from Celebes to New Guinea, in 
which district no less than 13 out of the 1 9 genera occur, 8 of them 
being peculiar ; and it is probable that in no other equally varied 
group of universal distribution, is so large a proportion of the 
generic forms confined to so limited a district. From this centre 
kingfishers decrease rapidly in every direction. In Australia 
itself there are only 4 genera with 13 species ; the whole Oriental 
region has only 6 genera, 1 being peculiar ; the Ethiopian also 
6 genera, but 3 peculiar ; and each of these have less than half 
the number of species possessed by the Australian region. The 
Palsearctic region possesses only 3 genera, all derived from the 
Oriental region ; but the most extraordinary deficiency is shown 
by the usually rich Neotropical region, which possesses but a 
single genus, common to the larger part of the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere, and the same genus is alone found in the Nearctic region, 
the only difference being that the former possesses eight, while 
the latter has but a single species. These facts almost inevitably 
lead to the conclusion that America long existed without king- 
fishers ; and that in comparatively recent times (perhaps during 
the Miocene or Pliocene period), a species of the Old World 
genus, Ceryle, found its way into North America, and spreading 
Tapidly southward along the great river- valleys has become 
differentiated in South America into the few closely allied forms 
that alone inhabit that vast country— the richest in the world in 
