chap, xrn.] 
THE AUSTRALIAN REGION. 
419 
otherwise peculiar American family, occurring so far across the 
Pacific. 
Snakes are much less abundant, only four genera being repre- 
sented, one of them marine. They are, A noplodipsas, a peculiar 
genus of Amblycephalidae from New Caledonia; Enygrus, a 
genus of Pythonidse from the Fiji Islands; Ogmodon, a peculiar 
genus of Elapidse, also from the Fiji Islands, but ranging to 
Papua and the Moluccas ; and Platurus, a wide-spread genus of 
sea-snakes (Hydrophidse). In the more remote Sandwich and 
Society Islands there appear to be no snakes. This accords 
with our conclusion that lizards have some special means of 
dispersal over the ocean which detracts from their value as 
indicating zoo-geographical affinities ; which is further proved 
by the marvellous range of a single species (referred to above) 
from Australia to the Sandwich Islands. 
A species of Hyla is said to inhabit the New Hebrides, and 
several species of Platy mantis (tree-frogs) are found in the Fiji 
Islands; but otherwise the Amphibians appear to be unrepre- 
sented in the sub-region, though they will most likely be found 
in so large an island as New Caledonia. 
From the foregoing sketch, it appears, that although the 
reptiles present some special features, they agree on the whole 
with the birds, in showing, that the islands of Polynesia 
all belong to the Australian region, and that in the Fiji Is- 
lands is to be found the fullest development of their peculiar 
fauna. 
IV. New Zealand Sub-region. 
The islands of New Zealand are more completely oceanic 
than any other extensive tract of land, being about 1,200 
miles from Australia and nearly the same distance from New 
Caledonia and the Friendly Isles. There are, however, several 
islets scattered around, whose productions show that they 
belong to the same sub-region ; — the principal being, Norfolk 
Island, Lord Howe’s Island, and the Kermadec Isles, on the 
north ; Chatham Island on the east ; the Auckland and Mac- 
quarie Isles on the south ; — and if these were once joined to 
G G 
