CHAP. IV.] 
ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS. 
77 
islands, which, for reasons already stated, it is not advisable to 
treat as a primary Zoological region. The theory of this ancient 
continent and the light it may throw on existing anomalies of 
distribution, will be more fully considered in the geographical 
part of this work. 
Australian Region. — Mr. Selater’s original name seems pre- 
ferable to Professor Huxley's, “ Austral- Asian ; ” the incon- 
venience of which alteration is sufficiently shown by the fact 
that Mr. Blyth proposed to use the very same tern as an 
appropriate substitute for the “Indian region” of Mr. Sclater. 
Australia is the great central mass of the region ; it is by far the 
richest in varied and highly remarkable forms of life ; and it 
therefore seems in every way fitted to give a name to the region 
of which it is the essential element. The limits of this region 
in the Pacific are somewhat obscure, but as so many of the 
Pacific Islands are extremely poor zoologically, this is not of 
great importance. 
Rub-divisions of the Australian Region . — The first sub-region 
is the Austro-Malayan, including the islands from Celebes and 
Lombock on the west to the Solomon Islands on the east. The 
Australian sub-region comes next, consisting of Australia and 
Tasmania. The third, or Polynesian sub-region, will consist 
of all the tropical Pacific Islands, and is characterized by 
several peculiar genera of birds which are all allied to Australian 
types. The fourth, consists of New Zealand with Auckland, 
Chatham, and Norfolk Islands, and must be called the New 
Zealand sub-region. 
The extreme peculiarities of New Zealand, due no doubt to 
its great isolation and to its being the remains of a more 
extensive land, have induced several naturalists to suggest that 
it ought justly to form a Zoological region by itself. But the 
inconveniences of such a procedure have been already pointed 
out ; and when we look at its birds as a whole (they being the 
only class sufficiently well represented to found any conclusion 
upon) we find that the majority of them belong to Australian 
genera, and where the genera are peculiar they are most nearly 
related to Australian types. The preservation in these islands 
