ive of a
southern origin. It is doubtful whether the bird occurs on the south
side of the Mediterranean, but it is common in the south of France and
Spain, and has also been observed in Sicily, Greece, and Asia Minor. In
Central Europe it is found sparingly, and eastward its range extends as
far as Turkestan.

The genus _Fringilla_, which belongs to the great family of the Finches,
appears to be not only of European origin, but, if the range of the
species counts for anything, I should feel inclined to locate their home
in the south-west. Altogether, five species are known. One of them,
viz., _Fringilla teydea_, is confined to the Island of Teneriffe;
another, _F. madeirensis_, is found in Madeira, the Canaries, and the
Azores; a third, _F. spodiogenys_, inhabits North-west Africa. The two
remaining species have a much wider range. _F. coelebs_--the common
Chaffinch--occurs in Europe, while its range extends eastward to Western
Siberia, Persia, and Turkestan. The other--_F. montifringilla_, known as
the Brambling--is more common in Northern Europe, and generally
frequents the more northern latitudes of Asia as far as Japan.

It might be urged that the peculiar little blue Magpie of
Spain--_Cyanopolius Cooki_--should find a place among the Lusitanian
species, since there is no bird like it anywhere else in Europe. But in
Eastern Siberia there lives a bird so closely allied as to be barely
distinguishable from it. Nevertheless, since there are some
distinguishing characters, it has received a distinct name--_C. cyanus_.
This is a most interesting and remarkable case of discontinuous
distribution, which may perhaps be explained by the supposition that the
genus is of Oriental origin, and has died out at its former
headquarters in Southern Asia and all along the line of migration,
except at the extreme limits of the range in both directions--east and
west.

As we go down in the scale of life--among the lower vertebrates and
invertebrates--we meet with a greater number of prominent members of the
Lusitanian migration. The Bullfinch, Dipper, and Chough, which might be
thought to be of Lusitanian origin, are, as I have shown in the last
chapter, Asiatic.

The European snakes seem to be all of eastern origin, unless
_Tropidonotus viperinus_ might be claimed as a Lusitanian form. Of very
great interest from a zoogeographical point of view is our only European
member of the South American and African family _Amphisbaenidae_.