Alfred Russel Wallace

“ This immense family, comprising all the birds usually known as "warblers," is, as here constituted, of almost universal distribution. Yet it is so numerous and preponderant over the whole Eastern Hemisphere, that it may be well termed an Old-World group; only two undoubted genera with very few species belonging to the Nearctic region, while two or three others whose position is somewhat doubtful, are found in California and the Neotropical region. ”

“ The most remarkable feature in the geographical distribution of the Passeres is the richness of the American continent, and the large development of characteristic types that occurs there. The fact that America possesses 14 altogether peculiar families, while no less than 23 Old-World families are entirely absent from it, plainly indicates, that, if this division does not represent the most ancient and radical separation of the land surface of the globe, it must still be one of very great antiquity, and have modified in a very marked way the distribution of all living things. ”

“ The Tanagers are an extensive family of varied and beautiful fruit-eating birds, almost peculiar to the Neotropical region, only four species of a single genus (Pyranga) extending into the Eastern United States and Rocky Mountains. Southward they range to La Plata. They are especially abundant in the forest regions of South America east of the Andes, where no less than 40 out of the 43 genera occur; 23 of the genera are peculiar to this sub-region, while only 1 (Phlogothraupis) is peculiar to Central America and Mexico, and 2 (Spindalis and Phænicophilus) to the West Indian islands. ”

“ The great family of the Fringillidæ, or finches, is in a very unsettled state as regards their division into genera, the most divergent views being held by ornithologists as to the constitution and affinities of many of the groups. All the Australian finch-like birds appear to belong to the Ploceidæ, so that the finches, as here constituted, are found in every region and sub-region, except the Australian region from which they are entirely absent—a peculiar distribution hardly to be found in any other family of birds. ”

“ The Tanagroid Passeres (Families 24-33) are very characteristic of the New World, five being confined to it, and three others being quite as abundant there as in the Old World; while there is not a single exclusively Old World family in the series, except the Drepanididæ confined to the Sandwich Islands. The Sturnoid Passeres (Families 34-38) are all exclusively Old World, except that two larks inhabit parts of North America, and a few pipits South America. ”

“ For the Eastern genera I follow Lord Walden's classification (Ibis, 1870) ; the African species not having been so carefully studied are mostly placed in one genus. The genera adopted are as follows:—
Promerops (1 sp.) , South Africa; Nectarinia (60 sp.) , the whole Ethiopian region; Cinnyricinclus (5 sp.) , West Africa; Neodrepanis (1 sp.) , Madagascar; Arachnechthra (13 sp.) , Palestine, all India to Hainan, the Papuan Islands, and North-east Australia; Æthopyga (15 sp.) , Himalayas and Central India to West China, Hainan, Java, and Northern Celebes ”

“ They are almost as abundant in the Nearctic as in the Neotropical region; and considering the favourable conditions of existence in Tropical America, this fact, in connection with their absence from the South Temperate zone would lead us to suppose that they originated in North Temperate America, and subsequently spread southward into the tropics. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that their metropolis, in the breeding season, is to the north of the United States. The genera adopted by Messrs. ”

“ In the southern hemisphere we have also two, the Phytotomidæ, and in a less degree, the Pteroptochidæ; making two wholly and two mainly temperate families. Of exclusively tropical families on the other hand, we have about 12, and several others that are mainly tropical. ”

“ They are, however, most abundant and varied in the Oriental region, much less so both in the Australian and Ethiopian regions. The distribution of the genera is as follows:—
Dicrurus (46 sp., in several sub-genera) , has the range of the whole family, extending east to New Ireland, and one species in Australia; Chætorhynchus (1 sp.) , New Guinea; Bhringa (2 sp.) , Himalayas to Borneo (Plate IX. vol. i. p. 339) ; Chibia (2 sp.) , Himalayas eastward to North China; Chaptia (3 sp.) , all India to Malacca and Formosa ”

“ Tristram has furnished me with the following enumeration of the species which in his view properly belong to them, by the numbers in that work:— ↑ The term "Malaya" is used here to include the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and Java, a district to which many species and genera are confined. ”

“ Corvus (55 sp.) , universally distributed except South America and New Zealand, but found in Guatemala and the Antilles to Porto Rico; reaches the extreme north of Europe and Asia; Gymnocorvus (2 sp.) , Papuan Islands; Picathartes (1 sp.) , West Africa; Corvultur (2 sp.) , Tropical and South Africa.
Sub-family V. Fregilinæ (Choughs) .—Fregilus (3 sp.) , mountains and cliffs of Palæarctic region from West Europe to the Himalayas and North China, Abyssinia (Plate I., Vol. I., p. 195) ; Corcorax (1 sp.) , Australia.
Family 21.—PARADISEIDÆ. (19 Genera, 34 Species.) ”

“ Pachycephala (44 sp.) , Sula Islands (east of Celebes) to the Fiji Islands, and Australia; Hylocharis (4 sp.) , Timor, Celebes, Indo-Malaya, and Aracan; Calicalicus (1 sp.) , Madagascar; Eopsaltria (14 sp.) , Australia, New Caledonia, and the New Hebrides; Artamia (4 sp.) , Madagascar,—may belong to this family, or to Laniidæ, Oriolidæ, or Artamidæ, according to different authors. ”

“ Pyromelana (14 sp.) , Tropical and South Africa, Abyssinia to 10,500 feet; Philetærus (1 sp.) , South Africa; Nigrita (7 sp.) , West Africa to Upper Nile; Plocepasser (4 sp.) , East and South Africa; (1672—1674) Vidua (7 sp.) , Tropical and South Africa (Plate V., Vol. I., p. 264) ; (1675—1677) Coliuspasser (9 sp.) , Tropical and South Africa ”