208 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



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 deter- 

 mined, 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 mon- 

 key 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 



