24:0 ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL 



America, produce several very curious animals, among 

 %vliich we may mention the Antilope furcifer and Ant. mon- 

 tana. As to reptiles, this vast peninsula affords a very 

 great number of aquatic Tortoises, of tlie genera Emys and 

 Trionj'x ; but, except in the southern parts, there are no 

 terrestrial Tortoises, or rather the animal which represents 

 them, is the Emys clausa, a species intermediate between ter- 

 restrial and acjuatic tortoises. Saurian reptiles occur there 

 in very small number, in comparison to what we observe 

 in South America, and there are none of tlie species inha- 

 biting trees. The Batrachians, on the contrary, are there 

 very common ; and there we find a great quantity of Sala- 

 manders,* and tliose singular Batrachians, which one would 

 take for the larvae of Salamanders, or for incomplete annuals, 

 and which may be compared to our European Proteus ; but 

 the Bombintors (Rana Braziliensis, Gmel.) have never yet 

 been observed in North America. In comparing together 

 the species of reptiles, or more especially the serpents of 

 the two peninsula; forming the new continent, we are able 

 to establish very interesting parallels ; the common Frog 

 of North America, Bana mugiens, for example, is repre- 

 sented, in South America, by an analogous species, Bana 

 pach}i3us, of the same size, but with the toes entirely free. 

 The Toad of the United States, Bufo musicus, which also 

 inhabits several of the Antilles, is not found in South Ame- 

 rica, where it is replaced by the Bufo aqua. The Crotalus 

 horridus, common in all South America, is represented, in 

 North America, by the Crotalus durissus ; the Coronella 

 vonustissima is there represented by the Cor. coccinea, the 

 Emys scorpioides by the Emys odorata, &c. The compa- 

 rison, however, which we have made between the reptiles 

 of the two Americas only applies to a small number of 

 species, and it often happens that one of the two peninsulse 

 produce species, or even genera, of which no representative 

 exists in the other.-j- The Tortrix, the Dipsas, the Den- 



* The Salamanders peculiar to the temperate i-egions of the northern 

 hemisphere, and the Caecilia, a native of tropical regions, would appear 

 to replace each other in these two zones. 



t The Ophisaurus, which there represents our [Pseudopus, and of 



