GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 171 



Alps and Lorraine mountains, towards the summits, 

 crowned with perpetual snow. Thus, then, in one 

 mountain we may encounter a variety of animals, 

 each placed in that temperature suited to its economy 

 and wants ; at the foot, the variously coloured and 

 highly endowed creatures ; at the summit, the ani- 

 mals whose coverings of hair or feathers are assimilated 

 for wise reasons to the colour of the snow which are thus 

 also rendered little capable of suffering the passage of 

 heat from the bodies so covered ; as examples of which 

 beautiful provision, the fox and the grouse of the 

 North Pole, and the snow-finch of the same regions, 

 and of the summits of the Alps may be enumerated. 



Some few exceptions to the law that animals suf- 

 fer only one temperature and one climate might be 

 enumerated. A good instance of this is the white- 

 tailed eagle of North America so beautifully descri- 

 bed by Wilson as possessing a hardy constitution 

 and prodigious powers of flight, so that it can at plea- 

 sure transport itself in a short space of time from a 

 cold to a hot climate, in pursuit of prey, and again 

 return to its wonted seat on the rocks which surmount 

 some of the finest rivers in the world. 



In our own country too ; very many birds and quad- 

 rupeds which suffer the heat of summer not far short of 

 that of the Indies brave also the severest of our winters. 

 Again some, and not a few, examples can be adduced 

 of quadrupeds, birds, and more especially of fishes 

 of the same species being permanently established in 

 several portions of the earth not agreeing any how 

 except in this — that a supply of food is provided for 

 the animals thus widely and wisely dispersed; we 

 do not allude to domesticated animals such as the 

 dog or horse, which have been so successfully trained 

 to useful purposes in every quarter of the globe ; nor 

 to those which subsist by pilfering the provisions of 

 man whithersoever he has betaken himself; but to 

 such as the barn owl, a native of this country, and 

 found also in some islands in the South Pacific ; to the 

 sucking-fish, found in the North Seas, as well as in 



