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first glance at the list shows that almost all the Ophiurids belong 
to the Indo-Paciftc fauna. Twenty of them are characteristic 
of this fauna and had already, with few exceptions, been described 
by Prof. Koehler in his Monograph on the littoral Ophiurids 
of the “ Siboga ” Expedition. Among the remaining 5 species, 
three do not strictly belong to the Indo-Pacific region, but may 
be included in it ; they are Ophiomyxa australis, chiefly distributed 
over the southern coasts of Australia, but also found by the 
“ Challenger ” at Amboina, and even at the Phillipines, in 7 0 of 
N. Lat., Amphiura squamata, decidedly cosmopolitan, being 
found in the northern seas, in the equatorial Atlantic, off the 
Cape of Good Hope, and New Zealand, and Ophionereis shayeri, 
which was usually considered peculiar to the southern coasts of 
Australia and New Zealand, but which really possesses a much 
wider range, being represented in the Museum at Paris by speci- 
mens from Cape Horn, and from the Galapagos Islands. The 
two remaining species have a more restricted distribution, 
Amphiura constricta being formerly only known from Port 
Jackson, and Ophiactis lutkeni only from Fernando-Po. The 
distribution of the latter is similar to that of Ophionereis dubia, 
which was formerly thought to be limited to the Indian Ocean, 
but recently has been found by Lyman Clark at Porto Rico. 
The various collections made in Australia towards the end of 
last century showed that the littoral fauna of this vast land did 
not constitute a homogenous whole. While the fauna of the N. 
and N.E. coasts had a purely Indo-Pacific character, that of the 
S. and S.W. coasts was remarkable for including quite different 
species, allied to, or identical with, New Zealand species. 
As regards the Echinoderms, J . Bell, in the Report upon the 
Voyage of the “ Alert,” has insisted on this important point, 
that the marine fauna of the tropical portions of Australia is 
that of the Indo-Pacific region, whilst that of the extra-tropical 
portions is of a New Zealand type. Lately Farquhar has arrived 
at similar conclusions. He is of the opinion that an Australian 
zoological region can be defined, the northern limit of which is 
bounded by the 25 0 of S. lat. (2 degrees more southerly than 
that of J. Bell), and which comprises all of Australia situated 
south of this line, together with New Zealand. The fauna of 
the Australian region thus defined has a character quite distinct 
from that of the portions of Australia situated N. of the 25° of 
S. lat. The latter portions should be included in the Indo- 
Pacific Region. 
The result of the exploration of Michaelsen and Hartmeyer 
shows as far as the Ophiurids are concerned, that the fauna 
maintains its Indo-Pacific character all along the west coast of 
Australia — that is as far south as the 33rd parallel. This is 
much further south than on the east coast. The northern limit 
of the Australian-New Zealand region, therefore, on the west 
