CHAPTER III. 
CLASSIFICATION OF THE FACTS OF DISTRIBUTION. — ZOOLOGICAL 
REGIONS. 
The Geographical Divisions of the Globe do not correspond to Zoological 
divisions — The range of British Mammals as indicating a Zoological 
Region — Range of East Asian and North African Mammals — The 
Range of British Birds — Range of East Asian Birds — The limits of the 
Pal as arctic Region — Characteristic features of the Paliearctic Region — 
Definition and characteristic groups of the Ethiopian Region — Of the 
Oriental Region — Of the Australian Region — Of the Nearctic Region — 
Of the Neotropical Region — Comparison of Zoological Regions with 
the Geographical Divisions of the Globe. 
Having now obtained some notion of how animals are dispersed 
over the earth’s surface, whether as single species or as collected 
in those groups termed genera, families, and orders, it will be 
well, before proceeding further, to understand something of the 
classification of the facts we have been considering, and some 
of the simpler conclusions these facts lead to. 
We have hitherto described the distribution of species and 
groups of animals by means of the great geographical divisions 
of the globe in common use; but it will have been observed 
that in hardly any case do these define the limits of anything 
beyond species, and very seldom, or perhaps never, even those 
accurately. Thus the term “ Europe ” will not give, with any 
approach to accuracy, the range of any one genus of mammals 
or birds, and perhaps not that of half-a-dozen species. Either 
they range into Siberia, or Asia Minor, or Palestine, or North 
Africa ; and this seems to be always the case when their area 
