52 
Animal Geography. 
[January, 
groups of organic beings were originally placed by the 
Creator in certain regions for which they are peculiarly and 
exceptionally adapted. How completely this hypothesis is 
at variance with facts requires no further demonstration. 
Mr. Wallace, as the basis of his arrangement, adopts the 
six regions originally proposed in 1857 by Dr. Sclater. This 
view, at first established merely on a study of the distribution 
of birds, has since been applied by its author to the mam- 
mals, and by Dr. Gunther to reptiles. The regions are — the 
Palaearctic, embracing the eastern continent from the Icy 
Ocean down to the Sahara, the Indus, and the Himalaya; 
2nd, the Ethiopian, including all Africa south of the Great 
Desert, the tropical portion of Arabia, the islands of Mada- 
gascar, Mauritius, Bourbon, the Seychelles, and others in 
the Indian Ocean, but excluding the Azores, Madeiras, 
Canaries, and the Cape Verde group ; 3rd, the Oriental re- 
gion, comprising India, both hither and farther, along with 
the south-eastern portion of China, Ceylon, the Andamans 
and Nicobars, the Sunda Islands up to the Straits of Macas- 
sar, Hainan, and Formosa, and probably the Philippines ; 
4thly comes Australia, with New Guinea, the Moluccas and 
Celebes to the westward, and New Zealand and Polynesia 
to the south and east. Next follows the Neotropical region, 
or South America, with the West Indies, Central America 
up to the southern slope of the great Mexican table-land, 
and the Galapagos. Lastly we have the Nearctic region, 
including the whole of North America from the Mexican 
table-land to the furthest limit of animal life in the Polar 
regions. 
Our first thought concerning this arrangement is that its 
nomenclature is unhappy. Four, if not five, of the names 
do not at once tell their own tale. Instead of Neotropical 
and Neardtic, it would surely be simpler to say West- 
Southern and West-Northern, or even South-American and 
North-American. The term “ Oriental ” might be supposed 
applicable to Persia, Arabia, and Syria, and may therefore 
be usefully replaced by the name “ Indian,” as originally 
proposed by Dr. Sclater. In like manner we would substi- 
tute “East-Northern” for “ Palaearctic,” and “African” 
for “ Ethiopian.” 
But these six regions, howsoever named, are not univers- 
ally accepted by naturalists. Prof. Huxley points out that 
the Australian and Neotropical regions differ more widely 
from the other four above mentioned than do these latter 
respectively from each other. Hence if we take Australia, 
South America, and all the rest of the world, which he calls 
