AVES. 
35 
Professedly the threefold objeet of this interesting treatise is 
to diseuss : — 1st, the proper limits of the group Alectoromorphm 
and its subdivisions ; 2ndly, the relations of sundry outlying 
forms, commonly regarded as Gallinaceous birds, to the Alec- 
toromorplm and adjacent groups ; and 3rdly, the geographical 
distribution of the AlectoromorjAia in relation to geographical 
distribution generally. Leaving the details of the first two 
divisions to be given under our heading of Gallinas, we pass to 
the third, wherein the author brings together a long string of 
most important facts bearing on the wdiole question of zoogeo- 
graphy. Taking examples, not otdy from the class Aves gene- 
rally, but also from some of the Mammalia, he shows that the 
Nearctic Eegion of Mr. Sclater is really far more closely allied 
to the Palsearctic than to the Neotropical — and further that, 
as Dr. Puchcran believes (Zool. Rec. iii. p. 47), the faunas of the 
Indian and Ethiopian Regions are much more nearly connected 
with one another and with that of the Paleearctic than with that 
of the Australian Region. Thus the great frontier line is lati- 
tudinal rather than longitudinal, and accordingly we ought 
rather to speak of an ArctogeCa and a Notogeea than (with Mr. 
Sclater) of a Neogcea and a Falceogcea as the primary divisional 
areas. 
In regard to the secondary divisions, he does not so much 
object to the principles of Mr, Sclater, finding them to answer 
in great measure to those suggested by the distribution of the 
Alectoromorjjhoi but Prof. Huxley thiidcs it would be conve- 
nient to recognize a northern circumpolar province as dis- 
tinct from the Nearctic and Palsearctic Regions* ; and, more than 
this, he looks upon the Australian Region Australasia^^) as 
being so very different, not only from his Arctogsea,^^ but 
also from the Neotropical Austro-Columbia^’), that a good 
case might be made out for regarding it as a primary division. 
Still further, he is disposed to give a similar distinction to New 
Zealand; and thus the earth’s surface, if this view were ad- 
mitted, would be divided into four primary Regions : — I. Arcto- 
gfea; II. Austro-Columbia ; III. Australasia; and IV. New 
Zealand. Some further remarks of very great interest follow : 
it will perhaps be enough here to mention that their upshot is 
to show the probability of the first three of the Regions just 
named having been as distinct in the early Tertiary epoch as 
they arc now. 
Lewis, Grace Anna. Natural History of Birds. Lectures on 
Ornithology. Parti. Philadcljdiia : 1808. I2mo, pp. 32. 
* Ilerr von Pelzeln lias wished to establish an “ Antarctic Region (Zcol, 
Rec. ii, pp. 57, 58), and Prof. Baird a “ West-Indian Region” (pp. cit. iii 
p. 69). Neither of these suggestions, any more than that above given of 
Prof. Huxley’s, seems to us to be at present fully justifiable. 
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