ANSERIFORMES. 
reviewer in the Ihis 1914, pp. 147-149, noticed this and wrote : 
“ In another section of the Introduction the zoogeographical relations of 
Australian birds are discussed. Mr. Mathews draws attention to what 
he believes to be an Antarctic element in the avifauna, and instances 
such genera as Trihonyx and Cereopsis as having an Antarctic origin. 
To prove this, however, it is necessary to postulate considerable changes 
in the distribution of land and water, and great alterations of climate 
in tertiary times, and at present there seems to be hardly enough 
evidence of this. There seems to be no reason to reject the hypo- 
thesis that the Australian avifauna originally reached the continent from 
the north, but at so long a period ago that it has become profoundly 
modified.” 
I would simply note that the hypothesis that the Australian Fauna, 
considered as a whole, originally reached the continent from the north 
has been rejected by nearly every recent worker in other branches of 
science as being quite unable to explain the connections of the South 
American, New Zealand, and Australian genera and species. Our know- 
ledge of Australian avian anatomy is so imperfect that we cannot yet 
prove exact relationships, but all the available evidence points to 
Antarctica as a stepping-stone between the three above-named places, 
though probably not a centre of evolution, a result arrived at by other 
investigators in other branches. This is just a note by the way, as I 
hope to make further contributions to the subject when I will simply 
work to the facts, as I am quite unprejudiced with regard to either 
theory. I have stated that though the Australian Charadriifor7nes show 
a marked endemic element, in every case I should at present consider 
the birds to have had a northern origin. In the case of the Australian 
Anserijonnes I do not consider such a statement can be made, and 
therefore some other solution of the endemism must be sought. 
VOL. IV. 
9 
