A Geographical History of Mammals

he term Notogaea was first proposed, as stated in the preceding chapter, by Professor Huxley', to include not only the Australian region of Dr Sclater, but likewise the Neotropical region (Austro-Columbia); but an anonymous writer2 appears to have been the first to restrict it to the former of these areas3. This view, as being, on the whole, the most convenient, is adopted here; and the Notogaeic realm may accordingly be taken as the first of the three primary zoological divisions of the globe, and as equivalent to the Australian region of Drs Sclater and Wallace. According to the latter writer4, " its central and most important masses consist of Australia and New Guinea, in which the main features of the region are fully developed. To the north-west it extends to Celebes, in which a large proportion of the Australian characters have disappeared, while Oriental types are mingled with them to such an extent that it is rather difficult to determine where to locate it. To the south-east it includes New Zealand, which is in some respects so peculiar that it has even been proposed to constitute it a distinct region. On the east it embraces the whole of Oceania [Polynesia] to the Marquesas and Sandwich Islands,CHAP. II.] THE NOTOGEIC REALM : ITS CHARACTER. 29 1 Appendix, No. 18. 2 Ibid., No. 4. 3 The term Antarctogaea has been proposed by Dr Sclater (Appendix, No. 27, p. 214), for this area, but it is not a happy one. 4 Appendix, No. 32, vol. i., p. 387. ...