Remark on the Distribution of the Monotremata.
This order is the lowest and most anomalous of the mammalia, and nothing resembling it has been found among the very numerous extinct animals discovered in any other part of the world than Australia.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAMILIES AND GENERA OF BIRDS.
Order I.—PASSERES.
Family 1.—TURDIDÆ. (21 Genera, 205 Species.)
| General Distribution. | |||||
 | |||||
| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3 — |
The extensive and familiar group of Thrushes ranges over every region and sub-region, except New Zealand. It abounds most in the North Temperate regions, and has its least development in the Australian region. Thrushes are among the most perfectly organized of birds, and it is to this cause, perhaps, as well as to their omnivorous diet, that they have been enabled to establish themselves on a number of remote islands. Peculiar species of true thrush are found in Norfolk Island, and in the small Lord Howes' Island nearer Australia; the Island of St. Thomas in the Gulf of Guinea has a peculiar species; while the Mid-Atlantic island Tristan d'Acunha,—one of the most remote and isolated spots on the globe,—has a peculiarly modified form of thrush. Several of the smaller West Indian Islands have also peculiar species or genera of thrushes.
The family is of somewhat uncertain extent, blending insensibly with the warblers (Sylviidæ) as well as with the Indian bulbuls (Pycnonotidæ), while one genus, usually placed in it (Myiophonus) seems to agree better with Enicurus among the Cinclidæ. The genera here admitted into the thrush family are the following, the numbers prefixed to some of the genera indicating their position in Gray's Hand List of the Genera and Species of Birds:—
(1143) Brachypteryx (8 sp.), Nepaul to Java and Ceylon (this may belong to the Timaliidæ); Turdus (100 sp.) has the range of the whole family, abounding in the Palæarctic, Oriental and Neotropical regions, while it is less plentiful in the Nearctic and Ethiopian, and very scarce in the Australian; (934) Oreocincla (11 sp.), Palæarctic and Oriental regions, Australia and Tasmania; (942) Rhodinocichla (1 sp.), Venezuela; (946) Melanoptila (1 sp.), Honduras; (947 948) Catharus (10 sp.) Mexico to Equador; (949 950) Margarops (4 sp.), Hayti and Porto Rico to St. Lucia; (951) Nesocichla (1 sp.), Tristan d'Acunha; (952) Geocichla (8 sp.), India to Formosa and Celebes, Timor and North Australia; (954 955) Monticola (8 sp.), Central Europe to South Africa and to China, Philippine Islands, Gilolo and Java; (956) Orocætes (3 sp.), Himalayas and N. China; Zoothera (3 sp.) Himalayas, Aracan, Java, and Lombok; Mimus (20 sp.) Canada to Patagonia, West Indies and Galapagos; (962) Oreoscoptes (1 sp.), Rocky Mountains and Mexico; (963) Melanotis (2 sp.), South Mexico and Guatemala; (964) Galeoscoptes (1 sp.), Canada and Eastern United States to Cuba and Panama; (965 966) Mimocichla (5 sp.), Greater Antilles; (967 968) Harporhynchus (7 sp.), North America, from the great lakes to Mexico; Cinclocerthia (3 sp.), Lesser Antilles; (970) Rhamphocinclus (1 sp.), Lesser Antilles; Chætops (3 sp.), South Africa; Cossypha = Bessonornis (15 sp.) Ethiopian region and Palestine.