121 



lleport on North American Zoology. By John Richardson, 

 M.D., F.R.S., &;c. 



The following paper having reference to the animals of only a 

 single zoological province, bears the same relation to the valuable 

 report made to the Association by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, 

 " On the present State of Zoology*," that a local fauna does to 

 a woi'k embracing the whole animal kingdom. As it leaves un- 

 touched the principles of systematic arrangement, structure, 

 physiology, and in fact the fundamental doctrines of the science, 

 the only subjects coming properly within its scope appear to 

 be, an enumeration of the animals inhabiting North America ; 

 the peculiarities of the fauna ivhich they co7istitute when con- 

 trasted with those of the other zoological provinces into which the 

 earth may be divided ; and the geographical range of groups 

 or individual species, with the circumstances which tend to influ- 

 ence its extent, such as the configuration of the land, climate, 

 vegetation, 8fc. The only author who has written on the latter 

 branch of the subject is Mr. Swainson, to whom we are indebted 

 for an enumeration of the generic forms peculiar to North Ame- 

 rica f. No separate treatise has hitherto been devoted to the 

 laws which regulate the distribution of animals in North Ame- 

 rica, and the geographical limits of each species have been 

 very imperfectly pointed out in the systematic works containing 

 descriptions of the animals. Hence, as the reports called for 

 by the British Association are designed to exhibit the present 

 state of science, and not for the publication of new facts or the 

 mere enunciation of the reporter's opinions, portions only of the 

 outline of a complete fauna will be traced in the following 

 sketch ; but the purpose of the report will be answered if it 

 serves to point out the gaps in North American zoology which 

 require to be filled up, and to direct the attention of travellers 

 and resident naturalists to those investigations which are im- 



• Vide Rejiort of the Fourth Meeting, &c. London, 1835, p. 143. Mr. Jenyns 

 limits his report to " those researches which of late years have tended to 

 elucidate the characters and affinities of tlie lai-ger groups of animals, and 

 thereby to advance our knowledge of their natural arrangement." The great 

 extent of the field of inquiry thus marked out will appear by a quotation from 

 the first zoologist of the age : " En un mot, la melhode naturelle serait totile la 

 science, et chaquepas qu'on luifait fuire apjiroche la science de son but." (Cuv., 

 Reg. An., i. 10.) 



t Published in the Encyclopeedia of Geography; and in his volume on the 

 Geography and Classification of Animals, forming part of Lardner's Cyclo- 

 pedia. 



