CiiAi'. I. GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF ANIMALS. 35 



is now, ])ut for this neglect; every new fact relating to the geographical distribu- 

 tion of well-known species is as important to science as the discovery of a new 

 species. Could we only know the range of a single animal as accurately as 

 Alphonse DeCandolle has lately determined that of many species of plants, we 

 might begin a new era in Zoology. It is greatly to be regretted that in most 

 works, containing the scientific results of explorations of distant countries, only new 

 species are described, when the mere enumeration of those already known might have 

 added invaluable information respecting their geographical distribution. The careless- 

 ness with which some naturahsts distinguish species merely because they are found 

 in distant regions, without even attempting to secure specimens for comparison, is a 

 perpetual source of erroneous conclusions in the study of the geographical distribu- 

 tion of organized beings, not less detrimental to the progress of science than the 

 readiness of others to consider as identical, animals and plants which may resemble 

 each other closely, without pa3'ing the least regard to their distinct origin, and 

 without even pointing out the difTerences they may perceive between specimens from 

 difierent parts of the world. The perfect identity of anunals and plants living in 

 very remote i)arts of the globe has so often been ascertained, and it is also so 

 w^ell knowTi how closely species may be allied and }-et difl'or in all the essential 

 relations which characterize species, that such loose investigations are no longer 

 justifiable. 



This close resemblance of animals and plants in distant parts of the world is the 

 most interesting subject of investigation with reference to the question of the unity 

 of origin of animals, and to that of the influence of physical agents upon organized 

 beings in general. It appears to me that as the facts point now distinctly to an 

 independent origin of mdividuals of the same species in remote regions, or of 

 closely allied species representing one another in distant parts of the world, one 

 of the strongest arguments in favor of the supposition that physical agents may have 

 had a controlling mfluence in changing the character of the organic world, is gone 

 for ever. 



The narrowest limits within which certain Vertebrata maj- be circumscribed, is 

 exemplified, among Mannnalia, by some large and remarkable species: the Orang- 

 outangs upon the Sunda Islands, the Chimpanzee and the Gorilla along the west- 

 ern coast of Africa, several distinct species of Ehinoceros about the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and in Java and Sumatra, the Pinchaque and the common Tapir in South 

 America, and the eastern Ta[)ir in Smnatra, the East Indian and the African Ele- 

 phant, the Bactrian Camel and the Dromedary, the Llamas, and the different kinds 

 of wild Bulls, wild Goats, and wild Sheep, etc. ; among birds by the African Ostrich, 

 the two American Rheas, the Casovary (Dromicejus) of New Holland, and the Emeu 

 (Casuarius galeatus) of the Indian Archipelago, and still more by the different 



