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204 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



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 has no simi- 

 larity to 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 Pliilippii^) 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. 



434. TROPICAL FAUNAS. The tropical faunas are dis- 

 tinguished, on all the continents, by the immense variety of 

 animals which they comprise, not less than by the brilliancy 

 of their dress. All the principal types of animals are rep- 

 resented, and all contain numerous genera and species. 

 We need only refer to the tribe of humming-birds, which 

 numbers not less than 300 species. It is very important to 

 notice, that here are concentrated the most perfect, as well 

 as the oddest, types of all the classes of the Animal King- 

 dom. The tropical region is the only one occupied by the 

 Quadrumana, the herbivorous bats, the great pachydermata, 

 such as the elephant, the hippopotamus, and the tapir, and 

 the whole family of Edentata. Here also are found the 

 largest of the cat tribe, the lion and tiger. Among the Birds 

 we may mention the parrots and toucans, as essentially 

 tropical ; among the Reptiles, the largest crocodiles, and 

 gigantic tortoises ; and finally, among the articulated animals, 

 an immense variety of the most beautiful insects. The 

 marine animals, as a whole, are equally superior to those of 

 other regions ; the seas teem with crustaceans and numerous 

 cephalopods, together with an infinite variety of gasteropods 

 and acephala. The Echinoderms there attain a magnitude 



