DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAUNAS. 171 



432. The faunas of the southern temperate regions differ 

 from those of the tropics as much as the northern temperate 

 faunas do ; and, like them also, may be distinguished into 

 two provinces, the colder of which embraces Patagonia. 

 But besides differing from the tropical faunas, they are also 

 quite dissimilar to each other on the different continents. 

 Instead of that general resemblance, that family likeness 

 which we have noticed between all the faunas of the tem- 

 perate zone of the northern hemisphere, we find here the 

 most complete contrasts. Each of the three continental 

 peninsulas which jut out southerly into the ocean represents, 

 in some sense, a separate world. The animals of South 

 America, beyond the tropic of Capricorn, are in all respects 

 different from those at the southern extremity of Africa. 

 The hyenas, wild-boars, and rhinoceroses of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, have no analogues on the American continent ; 

 and the difference is equally great between the birds, rep- 

 tiles and fishes, insects and mollusks. Among the most 

 characteristic animals of the southern extremity of America 

 are peculiar species of seals, and especially, among aquatic 

 birds, the penguins. 



433. New Holland, with its marsupial mammals, with 

 which are associated insects and mollusks no less singular, 

 furnishes a fauna still more peculiar, and which does not 

 approach those of any of the adjacent countries. In the 

 seas of that continent, where every thing is so strange, we 

 find the curious shark, with paved teeth and spines on the 

 back (Cestracion Philippii}, the only living representative of 

 a family so numerous in former zoological ages. But a most 

 remarkable feature of this fauna is, that the same types 

 prevail over the whole continent, in its temperate as well as 

 its tropical portions, the species only being different at dif- 

 ferent localities, 



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