of Arabia, which are more allied to those of Africa than to those of Asia. 439. The tropical fauna of Asia, comprising the two peninsulas of India and the Isles of Sunda, is not less marked.⚫ It is the country of the gibbons, the red orang, the royal tiger, the gavial, and a multitude of peculiar birds. Among the fishes, the family of Chetodons is most numerously represented. Here also are found those curious spiny fishes, whose intricate gills suggested the name Labyrinthici, by which they are known. Fishes with tufted gills are more numerous here than in other seas. The insects and mollusks are no less strongly characterized. Among others is the nautilus, the only living representative of the great family of large, chambered-shells which prevailed so extensively over other types, in former geological ages. 440. The large Island of Madagascar has its peculiar fauna, characterized by its makis and its curious rodents. It is also the habitat of the Aya-aya. Polynesia, exclusive of New Holland, furnishes a number of very curious animals, which are not found on the Asiatic continent. Such are the herbivorous bats, and the Galeopithecus or flying Maki. The Galapago islands, only a few hundred miles from the coast of Peru, have a fauna exclusively their own, among which gigantic land-tortoises are particularly characteristic. SECTION III. CONCLUSIONS. 441. From the survey we have thus made of the distribu ion of the Animal Kingdom, it follows: 1st. Each grand division of the globe has animals which are either wholly or for the most part peculiar to it. These groups of animals constitute the faunas of different regions. 2d. The diversity of faunas is not in proportion to the distance which separates them. Very similar faunas are found at great distances apart; as, for example, the fauna of Europe and that of the United States, which yet are separated by a wide ocean. Others, on the contrary, differ considerably, though at comparatively short distances; as the fauna of the East Indies and the Sunda Islands, and that of New Holland; or the fauna of Labrador and that of New England... 3d. There is a direct relation between the richness of a fauna and the climate. The tropical faunas contain a much larger number of more perfect animals than those of the temperate and polar regions. 4th. There is a no less striking relation between the fauna and flora, the limit of the former being oftentimes determined, so far as terrestrial animals are concerned, by the extent of the latter. 442. Animals are endowed with instincts and faculties corresponding to the physical character of the countries they inhabit, and which would be of no service to them under other circumstances. The monkey, which is a frugivorous animal, is organized for living on the trees from which he obtains his food. The reindeer, on the contrary, whose food consists of lichens, lives in cold regions. The latter would be quite out of place in the torrid zone, and the monkey would perish with hunger in the polar regions. Animals which store up provisions are all peculiar to temperate or cold climates. Their instincts would be uncalled for in tropical regions, where the vegetation presents the herbivora with an abundant supply of food at all times. 443. However intimately the climate of a country seems to be allied with the peculiar character of its fauna, we are not to conclude that the one is the consequence of the other. The differences which are observed between the animals of different faunas are no more to be ascribed to the influences of climate, than their organization is to the influence of the physical forces of nature. If it were so, we should necessarily find all animals precisely similar, when placed under the same circumstances. We shall find, by the study of the different groups in detail, that certain species, though very nearly alike, are nevertheless distinct in two different faunas. Between the animals of the temperate zone of Europe, and those of the United States, there is similarity but not identity; and the particulars in which they differ, though apparently trifling, are yet constant. 444. Fully to appreciate the value of these differences, it is often requisite to know all the species of a genus or of a family. It is not uncommon to find, upon such an examination, that there is the closest resemblance between species that dwell far apart from each other, while species of the same genus, that live side by side, are widely different. This may be illustrated by a single example. The Menopoma, Siren, Amphiuma, Axolotl, and the Menobranchus, are Batrachians which inhabit the rivers and lakes of the United States and Mexico. They are very similar in external form, yet differ in the fact that some of them have external gills at the sides of the head, in which others are deficient; that some have five legs, while others are only provided with two; and also in having either two or four legs. Hence we might be tempted to refer them to different types, did we not know intermediate animals, completing the series, namely, the Proteus and Megalobatrachus. Now, the former exists only in the subterranean lakes of Austria, and the latter in Japan. The connection in this case is consequently established by means of species which inhabit continents widely distant from each other. 445. Neither the distribution of animals, therefore, any more than their organization, can be the effect of external influences. We must, on the contrary, see in it the realiza. tion of a plan wisely designed, the work of a Supreme Intelligence who created, at the beginning, each species of ammal at the place, and for the place, which it inhabits. To each species has been assigned a limit which it has no disposition to overstep, so long as it remains in a wild state. Only those animals which have been subjected to the yoke of man, or whose subsistence is dependent on man's, social habits, are exceptions to this rule. 446. As the human race has extended over the surface of the earth, man has more or less modified the animal population of different regions, either by exterminating certain species, or by introducing others with which he desires to be more intimately associated the domestic animals. Thus, the dog is found wherever we know of the presence of man. The horse, originally from Asia, was introduced into America by the Spaniards; where it has thriven so well, that it is found wild, in innumerable herds, over the Pampas of South America, and the prairies of the West. In like manner, the domestic ox became wild in South America. Many less welcome animals have followed man in his peregrinations; as, for example, the rat and the mouse, as well as a multitude of insects, such as the house-fly, the cockroach, and others which are attached to certain species of plants, as the white butterfly, the Hessian fly, &c. The honey-bee, also, has been imported from Europe. 447. Among the species which have disappeared, under the influence of man, we may mention the Dodo, a peculiar species of bird which once inhabited the Mauritius, some remains of which are preserved in the British and Ashmolean Museums; also a large cetacean of the north, (Rytina Stelleri,) formerly inhabiting the coasts of Behring's Straits, and which has not been seen since 1768. According to all appearances, we must also count among these the great stag, the skeleton and horns of which have been found buried in the peat-bogs of Ireland. There are also many species of animals whose numbers are daily diminishing, and whose extinction may be foreseen; as the Canada deer, (Wapiti,) the Ibex of the Alps, the Lämmergeyer, the bison, the beaver, the wild turkey, &c. 448. Other causes may also contribute towards dispersing animals beyond their natural limits. Thus, the sea-weeds are carried about by marine currents, and are frequently met with far from shore, thronged with little crustaceans, which are in this manner transported to great distances from the place of their birth. The drift wood which the Gulf Stream floats from the Gulf of Mexico even to the western shores of Europe, is frequently perforated by the larvæ of insects, and may, probably, serve as depositories for the eggs of fishes, crustacea, and mollusks. It is possible, also, that aquatic birds may contribute in some measure to the diffusion of some species of fishes and mollusks, either by the eggs becoming attached to their feet, or by means of those which they evacuate undigested, after having transported them to considerable distances. Still, all these circumstances exercise but a very feeble influence upon the distribution of species in general; and each country, none the less, preserves its peculiar physiognomy, so far as its animals are concerned. 449. There is only one way to account for the distribution of animals as we find them, namely, to suppose that they are autochthonoi, that is to say, that they originated like plants, on the soil where they are found. In order to explain the particular distribution of many animals, we are even led to admit that they must have been created at several points o' the same zone; an inference which we must make from the distribution of aquatic animals, especially that of Fishes. If we examine the fishes of the different |