These considerations led me to
limit my work in its detailed systematic groundwork, and study of the
principles and law of distribution, to the mammalia and birds, and to
apply the principles thus arrived at to an explanation of the
distribution of other groups, such as reptiles, fresh-water fishes, land
and fresh-water shells, and the best-known insect Orders.
There remained another fundamental point to consider. Geographical
distribution in its practical applications and interest, both to
students and to the general reader, consists of two distinct divisions,
or rather, perhaps, may be looked at from two points of view. In the
first of these we divide the earth into regions and sub-regions, study
the causes which have led to the difference in their animal productions,
give a general account of these, with the amount of resemblance to and
difference from other regions; and we may also give lists of the
families and genera inhabiting each, with indications as to which are
peculiar and which are also found in adjacent regions. This aspect of
the study I term zoological geography, and it is that which would be of
most interest to the resident or travelling naturalist, as it would give
him, in the most direct and compact form, an indication of the numbers
and kinds of animals he might expect to meet with.[3]
The keynote of the general scheme of distribution, as set forth in these
two volumes, may be expressed as an endeavour to compare the extinct and
existing fauna of each country and to trace the course by which what is
now peculiar to each region had come to assume its present character.
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