Animal Geography. 
[January, 
5§ 
similar in soil, climate, and possible productions, but the 
poverty of the Antilles, whether in the higher or lower forms 
of animal life, is as remarkable as the wonderful riches of 
the Eastern islands. 
Turning to the Australian region we find again four sub- 
regions : — Austro-Malaya, or New Guinea ;* Celebes and the 
Moluccas ; Australia proper, with Tasmania, New Zealand; 
and, lastly, the South Sea Islands. Mr. Wallace doubts, 
however, whether the Sandwich Islands are not entitled to 
rank as a fifth sub-region, distinct from the rest of Polynesia, 
and having affinities which apparently point to a former 
connection with the western coast of North America. Con- 
cerning the Philippines, he is also uncertain whether they 
should be ranked with the Austro-Malayan sub-region or 
assigned to the Malayan section of the Oriental region. 
This being the case it is the more to be regretted that the 
author omits to furnish an analysis of the inseCt forms of 
this interesting group. 
The distribution of animals, recent and fossil, in the 
Australian region is the more important since from its study 
we may hope to obtain light on such questions as the former 
existence of a vast equatorial continent of which the Poly- 
nesian islands are the mountains, or of an antarCtic continent 
of which New Zealand may have formed an outlying por- 
tion, or of a former eastward extension of Australia and its 
connection with or approximation to New Guinea. 
The divisions of the Oriental or Indian region are — the 
Malayan, comprehending the Sunda Islands, with the penin- 
sula of Malacca, and possibly the Philippines ; the remain- 
der of further India, with the southern coast of China, and 
probably the islands of Hai-nan and Formosa; southern 
Hindustan, with Ceylon ; and northern Hindustan. The 
position of Hai-nan, and especially of Formosa, is some- 
what doubtful. Its fauna has, on the one hand, affinities 
with that of China (PalaearCtic region), and, on the other, 
with those of the Indo-Chinese, and even the Malayan sec- 
tions of the Oriental region. Here, again, it is to be regretted 
* Reports have been spread which if verified would have necessitated the 
total exclusion of New Guinea from the Australian region. Thus one traveller 
declared that he had met with the recent dung of a rhinoceros, and had seen 
the track of buffaloes in the mire. A more competent observer, however, 
Signor D’Alberti, has shown that the dung was merely that of the Casuarinus, 
and that the tracks had been made by wild swine. New Guinea is remarkable 
for the beauty of its insedts and of its birds. According to Mr. Wallace fully 
50 per cent of the latter are brilliantly coloured, whilst in such districts as 
Malacca and the Valley of the Amazon the proportion is not above 33 per cent. 
