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Show 52 ISLAND LIFE. [rAnT r. The only outlying portions of the region about which there can be any doubt are-Central America, or that part of the region north of the Isthmus of Panama, the Antilles or West Indian Islands, and the temperate portion of South America including Chili and Patagonia. In Central America, and especially in Mexico, we have an intermixture of South American and North .American animals, but the former undoubtedly predominate, and a large proportion of the peculiar N eotropical groups extend as far as Costa Rica. Even in Guatemala and Mexico we have how ling and spidermonkeys, coati-mundis, tapirs, and armadillos; while chatterers, manakins, ant-thrushes, anu other peculiarly N eotropical groups of birds are abundant. There is therefore no doubt as to Mexico forming part of this region, although it is comparatively poor, and exhibits the intermingling of temperate and tropical forms. The West Indies are less clearly N eotropical, their poverty in mammals as well as in most other groups being extrerne, while great numbers of North American birds migrate there in winter. The resident birds, however, comprise trogons, sugar-birds, chatterers, with many humming-birds and parrots, representing eighteen peculiar N eotropical genera; a fact which decides the region to which the islands belong. South temperate .America is also very poor as compared with the tropical parts of the region, and its insects contain a considerable proportion of north-temperate forms. But it contains armadillos, cavies and opossums; and its birds are all of .American groups, though,· owing to the inferior climate and deficiency of forests, a number of the families of birds peculiar to tropical .America are wanting. Thus there are no manakins, chatterers, toucans, trogons, or motmots ; but there are abundance of hang-nests, tyrant-birds, ant-thrushes, tree-creepers, and a fair proportion of humming-birds, tanagers and parrots. The zoology is therefore thoroughly N eotropical, although somewhat poor; and it has a number of peculiar forms-as the chinchillas, alpacas, &c., which are not found in the tropical regions except in the high .Andes. Comparison of Zoological Regions with the Geographical Divisions of the Globe.-Having now completed our survey CHAP. ltJ,) ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS. 53 of the great zoolo<ri . do not dift o cal regions of the globe, we find that they £rst exameprl es o m. uhc h from the 0 ld geograp h1' eal d1. V.I.Si ons as our Africa, Austra::~ ~ ~~veAled .us to suppose. Europe, Asia, correspond each\ or ~enca, and South America, really reqm.r e to ' be m do'f ia d zoological re<ri b t th . b . o on, u eir oundanes 0 I e more o 1 'd remember this and k h . r ess. consi erably; and if we in our mind ', eep t eir extenswns or limitations always 'North A ' "· e m"a y use .t he ter ms " s outh Amen. can" or mencan as hem . 1 Nearctic with ' . g e~mva ent to Neotropical and ' out much mconvemence while "Af . , .1 "A t l' " ' ncan anu us ra Ia~ :qually well serve to express the zoological t e of t~e Ethwpi~n ar:d Australian regions. Europe and l~a dre qmr·e more Important modifica·t ions · The Eur opean 1.c auna oes mdeed well represent the Palrearctic in all 't . £ t d ·r · 1 s mam ea. ures, an .I mstead ~f .Asia wo say tropical Asia we have the Onental .regwn very fairly defined; so that the relation of the geog~ap~1Cal and the zoological primary divisions of the earth is suffiCiently clear. In order to make these relations visible to the eye and more easily remembered, we will put them into a tabular form : Regions. Geographical Equivalent Palrearctic..... EUROPE, with north temperate Africa. and Asia. Ethiopian...... AFRICA (south of the Sahara) with Madagascar. Oriental........ TROPICAL AsiA, to Philippines and Java. Australian..... AUSTRALIA, with Pacific Islands, Molucca~, &c. N earctic....... NORTH AMERICA, to North Mexico. N eotropical... SoUTH AMERICA, with tropical N. America and w. Inrlies . The fho'l lowing arrangement of the reo-ions will indicate th · 1 . . o eir geograp Ica position, and to a considerable extent their relation to each other. NEARCT I NEo- TROPICAL IC--PALJEARC'l' IC I 0RIJNTAL ETHIOPIAN I A U S 'l' R A L I A N |
