236 ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL 



islands. The Naja of the Philippines belongs to the 

 ordinary variety of the N. tripiidians, which inhabits 

 India, and which is constantly different from that of the 

 islands in the Straits of Sunda. On the other hand, we 

 find in the Philippine Isles, several animals which probably 

 do not exist either in Ceylon or in Bengal : of this number 

 are the Basilisk, the Monitor bivittatus, and some others. 



New Holland being too little explored, and the objects of 

 natural history brought from thence to Europe being all col- 

 lected at the same points, it is difficult to speak of the dis- 

 tribution of aninuils in this vast island. All have, else- 

 wliere, heard of the singular productions of that country,* 

 a few of which also inhabit Van Diemen's Land, presenting 

 occasionally, in these different localities, differences simi- 

 lar to those we noticed between the same animals of seve- 

 ral parts of the Indian Archipelago. As to serpents, 

 New Holland xn-oduces species totally peculiar almost 

 without an exception, the greater number of which belong 

 to the family of venomous serpents ; no aquatic snakes have 

 yet been found there. The distribution of other reptiles in 

 that continent offers little remarkable ; but it deserves to 

 be noticed, that, with the exception of marine species, it 

 affords but a single Chelonian, the Emys longicollis : the 

 absence of Land Tortoises is the more remarkable, that 

 w^e find a very considerable number of them in the southern 

 extremity of Africa, a country which presents many affini- 

 ties with New Holland. We have already stated above, 

 that the innumerable islets scattered through the great 

 Pacific Ocean do not appear to produce serpents. The 

 Mariannes are an exception to this general rule ; and 

 Dampier speaks of green serpents which he saw in the 

 Galapagos islands. 



We now come to America, which presents several cu- 

 rious facts in regard to the distribution of animals. This 

 division of the Avorld is naturally parted into two great 

 continents, each of which has a particular fauna ; but 



* The Kangaroos, the Ornithorhynchus, the Echidna, the Phas- 

 colomys, and Phascolarctos, the Dasyurus, the Thylacinus, the Maenurus, 

 the Emeu, the i'hyllurus, and many others. 



