84 GEOGftAl>HY OP* ANIMALS IN SOUTH DEVON. 



our notice certain differences in form, colour, &c., 

 observed in some species, and which appear to be 

 wisely ordered for accordance with certain differen- 

 ces in surrounding circumstances, which may be ex- 

 pected to exist in localities which are far apart ; as 

 comprehending an inquiry into the economies of 

 animals, whereby arrangements are made to fit them 

 for temperatures, and other agents widely different, 

 and yet remain if not unaltered, in reality and 

 specifically the same ; as investigating the qualities 

 and kinds of food, appointed for the support of ani- 

 mals, and comparing them in different situations of 

 their range ; as contributing to elucidate the laws 

 of dependance in nature, one pecies on another, on 

 certain vegetables and minerals, as disclosing to us 

 something of the great scheme of an equilibiium in 

 the universe, whereby all things continue to fulfil 

 those destinies to hich they were appointed from 

 the first, and whereby all things continue to main- 

 tain that relation and proportion, the one to the 

 other, so necessary to the exact preservation of the 

 whole, and which has been interfered with only by 

 the o])erations of mankind, and by those apparent 

 deviations from uniformity, instituted by nature, 

 which ultimately subserve the same decree. 



Viewed in this way, our subject becomes one of 

 extreme interest, and as it is connected with very 

 many of the laws which influence animal life ; and 

 with Natural History in general, one also of extreme 

 utility. They who write on the Natural History of 

 a district or a county, are called on, more than they 

 who pen works on Natural History as a whole, to 

 direct their talents and attention towards a subject 

 so replete with importance and interest. He who 

 takes a bird^s-eye view of the operations of nature, 

 has, necessarily, an horizon to his prospect, which 

 forms a barrier to his investigations ; whilst they who 

 grovel on the earth within narrow limits, and follow 

 with untired assiduity the intricate paths and com- 

 plex actions of animals, cannot fail to arrive at las 



