CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



SECTION I. 



GENERAL LAWS OF DISTRIBUTION. 



396. No animal, excepting man, inhabits every part of 

 the surface of the earth. Each great geographical or cli- 

 matal region is occupied by some species not found else- 

 where ; and each animal dwells within certain limits, beyond 

 which it does not range while left to its natural freedom, and 

 within which it always inclines to return, when removed by 

 accident or design. Man alone is a cosmopolite. His domain 

 is the whole earth. For him, and with a view to him, it was 

 created. His right to it is based upon his organization and 

 his relation to Nature, and is maintained by his intelligence 

 and the perfectibility of his social condition. 



397. A group of animals which inhabits any particular 

 region, embracing all the species, both aquatic and terrestrial, 

 is called its FAUNA ; in the same manner as the plants of a 

 country are called its Flora. To be entitled to this name, it 

 is not necessary that every animal in the group should be 

 different from those inhabiting any other region ; it is suffi- 

 cient that there should be peculiarities in the distribution of 

 the families, genera, and species, and in the preponderance 



