172 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
probably the descendants of those which passed northward 
from the Antilles at a time when aland connection (possibly 
in Oligocene times) joined the latter with the old island of 
Florida. The fauna of Florida lends some support to this 
view. At any rate, it gives us more solid foundations for 
estimating the nature of the physical changes which the 
peninsula has undergone within more recent geological times. 
In the last chapter I alluded to a species of parrot 
(Conuropsis carolinensis) which in historic times still ex¬ 
tended its range as far north as the Great Lakes, and which 
seems at present to be retreating towards its original centre 
of dispersal in the south-east. Now this Carolina parrot, 
as it is generally called, has no near relations. Its 
closest ally, Conurus, is a genus of parrot ranging from 
Paraguay and eastern Bolivia in the south to Mexico 
and the West Indian Islands in the north. The fact 
of its occurrence in the West Indies alone implies that it is 
an ancient genus, for these islands have undoubtedly been 
separated from the continent for a long time. Moreover, 
Cuba, Haiti, Mona Island off Porto Rico, Jamaica and St. 
Thomas all possess distinct species of Conurus. It seems not 
unlikely that Conuropsis is an eastern offshoot of the older 
Conurus, just as Rhynchopsittacus has originated from it in 
the west. The occurrence of this parrot on the mainland does 
not necessitate the former existence of a land bridge to the 
West Indies, but, if other facts point to it, the presence of the 
Carolina parrot in the south-eastern States and its subsequent 
invasion of the northern States is more readily explained 
by it. 
I also made allusion before to the newt Spelerpes, a genus 
confined to America and southern Europe. One of its peculiar 
characters is that its tongue can be jerked out to a considerable 
distance. Only one other newt peculiar to Florida and Caro¬ 
lina, viz., Manculus, agrees with Spelerpes in the nature of 
its tongue, and, like it, must be an ancient genus. Another 
very peculiar amphibian is Amphiuma means, an eel-like 
creature with tiny limbs, inhabiting the ditches of rice-fields 
and swamps of tho south-eastern States. No fossil remains 
of this interesting species are known, but there can be no 
doubt that it is a very old form. Pseudobranchus lateralis. 
