From what has already been said it will be clear that the world may be divided into several different regions, according to the animals which are peculiar to the different ones. Following Newton's system, because it seems the most logical, at least so far as the birds are concerned, we have first:

Here we find the flightless Apteryx and a flightless goose now extinct, also the extinct Moa. There are also peculiar forms among the shorebirds, the birds of prey, the parrots, and some rather curiously constituted passerine birds. There have been several species introduced in relatively recent times, some of which already show signs of change.

Is but slightly connected with the preceding. The line separating this region from the Indian passes between the islands of Bali and Lombok, through the Strait of Macassar, between Borneo and Celebes, thence northward between the Philippines and Sanguir and Pelew; including, further on, the Ladrones, Hawaiians, all of Polynesia except the northern outliers of the New Zealand group, and finally sweeping back to encompass Australia. Here we find the curious egg-laying mammal, Ornithorhynchus. But to pass at once to the birds. Here we find such peculiar forms as the megapodes, cassowaries, sun-bitterns, birds-of-paradise, lyre birds, and many not so familiar. Of the higher birds there are but few compared with Europe or America. It is evidently a continent which has long been separated from the rest of the world.

Includes, broadly, tropical America. The forms found here bear certain resemblances to those found in the two regions already discussed; but this resemblance is probably rather because they are low in the scale of development than that there has ever been any direct land connection between them. Much the same conditions of life must have prevailed for all, thus making the rate of development nearly equal.

Here we find the rhea, tinamou and hoactzin, which show low grade; but mingling freely with them the higher forms which seem to have come down from the north later and all but crowded out these lower ones.

There is abundant evidence that the struggle for existence in South America has been far less severe than in North America.

As the name implies, includes all of North America, Europe, Asia north of India, and the Himalaya mountains, northern Africa where the great Sahara forms the natural boundary, and all islands belonging to the north temperate and north frigid zones. Many have divided this great belt into Palearctic and Nearctic, but the intermingling of species between northeast Siberia and Alaska seems to make such a distinction impracticable. But these distinctions should be and are retained in the divisions of the Holarctic. When we understand that at least one-third of the species found in the Nearctic are also found in the Palearctic, we shall understand why these two are grouped under one region. There are no orders, and there seem to be no families which are found in the Holarctic and nowhere else. Indeed, it is difficult to find even genera which do not have some species ranging into the Neotropical, Ethiopian or Indian. But among the species we find many. Indeed, there are few species which nest in both the Holarctic and in the regions bounding it on the south, and many of these are found only on the southern boundaries of the Holarctic. In our part of the Holarctic, that is, the Nearctic, the familiar birds about us do not nest also in the tropical regions.

As the name suggests, includes the whole of Africa except that portion north of the Sahara desert, and Arabia and Egypt, with Madagascar and other islands in the immediate vicinity. It seems hardly necessary to even mention the forms that are peculiar to this peculiar region. Even the word Africa brings trooping to our minds a whole continent of peculiarities in more realms than one. Here we find the Ostrich, the plantain eaters, the colies and several other families — nine in all. Of the lower groups there are the rollers, bee-eaters, horn-bills, the curious secretary-bird and many others. It is significant that among the Passerine birds there are but three families that are peculiar. So on the whole, this region has not developed so rapidly as the Holarctic.

There has not been the intense struggle for supremacy here which we see in the north temperate and higher regions.