510 Affi?iities of the feathered Race, 



to be distinct from that of Europe, although the difference 

 almost wholly consists in the obliquity of its wing spectrum ; a 

 character which, however, proved to be fixed and constant. 

 Had there not been this diversity, the two species would have 

 been, of course, equally distinct: yet how should we have dis- 

 criminated them apart ? The barn owls of the two continents, 

 which are now believed (and on good grounds) to be distinct, 

 are even more similar.* 



Equally close resemblances obtain in other departments of 

 the zoology of Europe and North America, and particularly 

 in the insect tribes : many butterflies, for instance (as several 

 of the ColW^s), from the opposite shores of the Atlantic, 

 being only to be told apart by the slowly acquired practical 

 ken of the entomologist. The natural productions of Japan, 

 again, in many instances, present the most astonishing simi- 

 litude to those of Europe ; yet they exhibit characters which 

 cannot be well reconciled with variation, however unimportant 

 in themselves, because they are distinctions which climate or 

 locality are not in the least likely to bring about. Besides, 

 supposing the latter, we should not only expect to meet with 

 specimens in every degree intermediate, but to find the same 

 species equally flexible to circumstances in other places, which 

 is not the case. 



In ornithology, the jay and bullfinch of Japan may be 

 selected from among numerous other instances ; the former 

 differing only from the European bird in the greater develope- 

 ment of certain markings about the head, and the latter pre- 

 senting no other difference than the much paler, or roseate, 

 tint of its abdominal plumage. Taking a series of species, we 

 have every grade of diversity, from the obviously distinct 

 Japanese peafowl (Pavo muticus), to the mealy linnet, which, 

 apparently, differs in no respect from that of Europe. In a 

 specimen of a pettychaps from the same locality, the only 

 difference I could perceive from our common Sylvia Xrochilus 

 on very minute inspection, consisted in a peculiar slight curve 

 at the extremity of the upper mandible : still we know how 

 nearly two British species of this genus resemble, and yet how 

 very diverse are their notes. Perhaps the song of the Japanese 

 pettychaps is dissimilar from that of either : at any rate, a 



* From subsequent investigations, I am enabled greatly to strengthen 

 the above position. Minute comparison of a considerable number of 

 American specimens with examples of what have been hitherto esteemed 

 the same species in Europe has brought to light distinctions as curious as, 

 in some instances, they were unexpected. Thus, the osprey of North 

 America may be always told, by trivial though constant characters, from 

 that of Europe ; and the same obtains with a variety of other species con- 

 sidered identical. 



