OCR Text |
Show 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 Palrearctic Region-Characteristic features of the Palrearctic RegionDefinition and characteristic groups of the Ethiopian Region-Of the Oriental Region-Of the Australian Region-Of the N earctic RegionOf 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 |