4 DISTRIBUTION OF LAND ANIMALS. [CH. I 



elephant even in the most secluded of Brazilian forests as 

 to meet with a tiger genuinely at home in the neighbour- 

 hood of a peaceful English village. 



That branch of Biology which is termed Geographical 

 Distribution, or, when applied to either animals or plants 

 only, Zoogeography and Phytogeography, is concerned 

 with facts such as the above ; it has also to do with the 

 solution or attempted solution of the various problems to 

 which these facts give rise. The science is not limited to 

 a consideration of the animals which inhabit dry land. 

 But this volume will only deal with those forms, touching 

 incidentally upon some of the fresh water species, whose 

 distribution is apparently governed by the same laws as 

 those which govern the distribution of the purely terres- 

 trial animals. 



We shall now commence our survey of the chief facts 

 in the distribution of land animals. It has been said that 

 every animal has its place in the world, which may be 

 wider or narrower. The country which is inhabited by a 

 given animal is called its area of distribution, its habitat 

 or locality. The converse follows that every tract of the 

 earth's surface is inhabited each by its peculiar set of 

 animals. But they are not met with everywhere in that 

 area. Almost every year a new volume is published 

 giving a list of the birds of a particular county or it may 

 be district ; anyone who will take the trouble to inspect 

 and compare a series of these volumes dealing with man} 

 different counties will be struck by the fact that a given 

 species of bird may be absent from one list or stated to be 

 uncommon, while numerous records of its discovery will be 



