forms and their habitats, are entirely unnoticed, owing to the productions of the same locality never being associated in our museums and collections. A few such relations have been brought to light by modern scientific travellers, but many more remain to be discovered; and there is probably no fresher and more productive field still unexplored in Natural History. Most of these curious and suggestive relations are to be found in the productions of islands, as compared with each other, or with the continents of which they form appendages; but these can never be properly studied, or even discovered, unless they are visibly grouped together. When the birds, the more conspicuous families of insects, and the land-shells of islands, are kept together so as to be readily compared with similar associations from the adjacent continents or other islands, it is believed that in almost every case there will be found to be peculiarities of form or colour running through widely different groups, and strictly indicative of local or geographical influences. Some of these coincident variations have been alluded to in various parts of this work, but they have never been systematically investigated. They constitute an unworked mine of wealth for the enterprising explorer; and they may not improbably lead to the discovery of some of the hidden laws (supplementary to Natural Selection), which seem to be required, in order to account for many of the external characteristics of animals. In concluding his task, the author ventures to suggest, that naturalists who are disposed to turn aside from the beaten track of research, may find in the line of study here suggested a new and interesting pursuit, not inferior in attractions to the lofty heights of transcendental anatomy, or the bewildering mazes of modern classification. And it is a study which will surely lead them to an increased appreciation of the beauty and the harmony of nature, and to a fuller comprehension of the complex relations and mutual interdependence, which link together every animal and vegetable form, with the ever-changing earth which supports them, into one grand organic whole. GENERAL INDEX. ALL names in Italics refer, either to the genera and other groups of Extinct The various matters discussed under Zoological Geography (Part III.). are Acara, ii. 438 Accipitres, European Eocene, i. 163 range of Palearctic genera of, i. 248 general remarks on the distribution of, ii. ACCIPITRINÆ, ií. 347 Acerina, ii. 425 Aceros, ii. 317 Acerotherium, ii. 214 Acerotherium, European Miocene, i. 119 N. American Tertiary, i. 136 Acestra, ii. 444 Acestura, ii. 108 Achalinus, ii. 375 Acharnes, ii. 434 Achatina, ii. 515 Achatinella, ii. 514 Acherontia, ii. 483 Achilognathus, ii. 452 Achænodon, N. American Tertiary, i. 138 Acicula, ii. 519 ACICULIDÆ, ii. 519 Acmæodera, ii. 497 Acodon, ii. 230 ACONTIADE, ii. $99 Acontias, ii. 399 |