XXI. of view. In creating birds, nature has reproduced the order BOOK of insects, but with more simplicity of structure, and greater power and liberty of locomotion. Their bones, Birds in a more bard and more numerous than those of fishes and geographireptiles, mark a more perfect organization. The wings cal point with which they are provided seem to assign to them the whole atmosphere as their domain; but the plumage in which they are clad, and which, like vegetation itself, va ries according to climate and temperature, proves to us, that these animals, apparently so free, are still subject to certain geographical laws. Even those whose robust constitution would allow them to disperse themselves far and wide, seem to be attached, both by taste and affection, to the districts where they were born. Thus, the condor, and the king of vultures, which soars above the summit of Chimborazo itself, never forsakes the chain of the Cordilleras of Peru and of Mexico: the vulture, and the great eagle, never remove from the ridges of the Alps. The sea eagle, or ospray, is perhaps distributed over the whole of the globe. In the natural order of Passeres, travellers often err, by confounding the foreign species with those of Europe-thus, the Calaos of Africa and India differ from our ravens, and the Manakins of America are not our tom-tits, though possessing some traits of resemblance. The torrid zone, also, exclusively contains the Birds of various species of Parroquets common in America,-of zone. Cockatoos, found only in the East Indies,-of Loris, most beautiful in the islands to the south-west of Asia,-and of Aras, which last are all from America. The celebrated Bird of Paradise is never met with beyond the limits of a very narrow region of the torrid zone, that is, New Guinea, and the neighbouring islands. Of the birds which cannot fly, every equatoreal region, insulated by the sea, has produced its particular kinds: The Ostrich of Africa and Arabia, the cassiowary of Java, of the neighbouring islands, and of New Holland, and the Touyou or Ostrich of Brazil, exhibit, in very distinct species, the same general features of organization. The smaller birds in the tropical the torrid XXI. BOOK countries are adorned with the most splendid colours, their plumage vies with the metallic brilliancy of the insects in the same zone. Birds of the temperate zone. Annual migrations. The temperate zone of birds reaches in our hemisphere from the 30th to the 60th parallel. Within these boundaries the various kinds, and even some species, are no longer confined to regions distinctly marked, and have no particular fixed countries. Besides, man has either transplanted, or drawn in his train with him, as he wandered, several species previously to be found in one particular country. The most remarkable geographical phenomenon is the annual migration of swallows, of storks and cranes, which, at the approach of winter, abandon the northern countries of Europe to visit Italy and Spain, and even Africa. Some species of swallows plunge themselves into lakes and marshes, where they remain in a dormant state during the winter.* The frozen zone has few species peculiarly belonging to it; amongst these is, the Anas mollissima, whose nests furnish the eider down. But we should consider this aquatic bird rather as frequenting the shores of the frozen seas. the frozen The Strix lapponicus, and the Tetrao lagopus, live upon mountains covered with perpetual snow. Birds of zone. Each grand maritime division of the globe has its pecuSea birds. liar birds. The Albatros flits along upon the waves as soon as we approach the 40th parallel of latitude. The sea swallows, and the tropical birds, never forsake the torrid zone; their species probably differ from the one ocean to the other. The Penguin of the Northern Pole differs from the Manchot of the South Seas. These birds without wings, may be considered as the last and lowest of the order to which they belong. Quadru peds. We now come to an order of animals much more perfectly organized than any of those which we have hitherto con Compare Guenau, in Buffon Histoire des Oiseaux, vol. xvii. p. 857. Daines Barrington, Miscellanies, p. 225. Mem. of the American Academy of Boston, i. p. 494; ii. p. 93, 877. XXI. sidered. It is particularly interesting to observe the geo-. BOOK graphical distribution of the various kinds of quadrupeds in the different zones, and on the two continents. This inquiry has already thrown great light upon the history of the earth, and is connected also with the history of man.* In the migration of animals, we have not so much to at- Their mic tend to their active power, or the energy of their organs, as grations. to what may be termed their passive power, or their capacity of resisting changes of temperature. Frequently, out of a whole genus, one species only is endowed with this capacity. Another species of animals again owes its extensive distribution solely to the care of man, who knew how to master it, and who carried it along with him to the very extremities of the globe. The external organs of animals undergo great changes, merely in consequence of their domestication-difference of climate produces others not less remarkable. As to the wild animals, they are directed in their migration, by the abundance or the scarcity of food. The carnivorous ones find almost every where their natural food, and when it fails them, they have recourse to vegetables; for this reason they must have spread themselves to a great extent. Those which cannot support great cold, have been unable to cross from the old to the new continent, because the only direct mode of communication between these two continents, is that furnished by the arctic ice. There are many different species of animals, whose residence history proves to have anciently been in much colder climates than those which they now inhabit: Sonetimes the continual inroads of man have either destroyed them or driven them away Sometimes the progress of agriculture, by clearing the forests, has bereft them at once of their range for food, and their place of shelter. : Several quadrupeds, by their almost general distribution, Animais baffle every attempt at geographical classification. These generally spread over quadrupeds are either in a state of domestication, such as the globe. the dog, the cow, the sheep, the goat, the horse, the ass, the * Zimmerman, Geographical Zoology, 3 vol. in 8vo. 1768, in German. XXI. BOOK pig, and the cat; or in a wild state, as the fox, the bear, the hare, the rabbit, the stag, the deer, the squirrel, the rat, the mouse, and the ermine. Amongst these animals, however, there are some which do not live in the frozen The dog. The ox. The sheep. zone. The Dog, the faithful companion of man, has followed him into every climate; in many countries he is the only domestic animal, and supplies the place of the horse and the ox. Towards the equator, as well as towards the pole, he loses his voice; his barking degenerates into a growling noise. This species is distributed as far as New Holland.* The Ox lives as far as the 64th degree, and in Lapland even under the 71st. This animal appears to be a native of the warmest part of the temperate zone of the old continent; it is there that he attains the greatest degree of strength and courage. But in the more humid and cold climates, as Gallicia, Holstein, and Iceland, the ox grows much larger, and the cows give more milk. In Iceland, it is in the valleys lying to the north, and under the 65th degree of latitude, that the cattle thrive best. The cows there have no horns, but yield abundance of milk. The ancient Icelandic colony in Greenland, exported butter, salt beef, and hides. The benevolence of Providence, by rendering this most useful species capable of supporting almost every climate, has thus enabled it to follow man to the remotest boundaries of animated nature. The Sheep and the Goat equally support the polar cold and the heat of the torrid zone. Goats are very numerous in Norway and in Iceland. The original race of sheep, the Argali, or the Mouflon, still exist, if we may credit Zimmerman, in all the great mountains of the two continents. The Capricorn, and the Ibex, or Wild Goat, which are the ancestors of the common goat, inhabit the highest summits of the two continents. * Collins' Account, &c. p. 567. + Speculum regale, 189, 191, 200. See the account of ancient Greenland in our first volume. The Horse, which did not exist in the new continent before the arrival of Europeans, is spread in Europe, and in Iceland, as far as beyond the polar circle. In Asia the horse is scarcely found beyond the 64th parallel; in America the race has spread to the country of Patagonia, the climate of which, under the 50th degree of south latitude, answers to the climates of the northern hemisphere, lying under the 60th parallel. BOOK XXI. The horse. horses. race. It appears to us, that there were in the old continent at least three original races of horses. The first, and the best Three proportioned, was originally spread between the 40th and faces of 55th parallels, and probably came from Great Bucharia, from Persia, or even from Asia Minor.* The Tartar Persian steeds, and those of Poland and Hungary, seem to have preserved the original form of the breed. In countries that are moderately damp and cold, and where there is rich pasturage, this race has become larger and stronger. The forms which are best developed have acquired that symmetry, and that noble warlike gait which mark the Danish, Norman, and English horses. These, however, have been mixed with the Arabian race. The third variety of the first race is a degenerate breed, produced by the deteriorating influence of a climate excessively damp; we may even trace the different degrees of this degeneracy. The horses of the country of Bremen have their feet worse made than those of Holstein and Jutland. As we proceed to East Friesland, their shape grows more and more clumsy. The second race is small, and sometimes almost dwarfish; Mongolian or Scyits characteristics are a compact square form, endowed with thian race. great strength, and surprising agility. It appears to derive its origin from the northern upland plains of Asia, from the steppes of Kirguises, although Pallas looks upon the wild horses of these countries as having come from the Studs. This race, according to some accounts, appears to * See the passages collected together by Bochart. Hierozoicon, b. ii. ch. 9, + Pallas, Voyages, i. p. 376, in 8vo. |