136 SIXTH REPORT —1S36. 



shovellers, gadwalls, and teals swiiniuing in lakes which s'.varni 

 with sirens (axolotl), and wherein the nortliern phaleropes seek 

 their food in company with Brazilian parras and boatbills ; asso- 

 ciations which occur in no other region of the earth. Though 

 the Mexican valleys or plains, having various altitudes, furnish 

 appropriate stations for peculiar assemblages of animals, and 

 by the common practice of the country the different regions are 

 distinguished as "cold", temperate, and "hot", yet we know 

 too little of the differences of climate to enable us to characterize 

 these local faunae with precision. It may be stated, however, 

 that the low and hot maritime tract [tierra caliente) and the 

 interior valleys nourish forms which have heretofore been con- 

 sidered as peculiarly South American, such as howling mon- 

 keys, hapales, armadillos, ant-bears, coatis, peccaris, coandus, 

 jaguars, ocelots, maccaws, and ibises, though they do not range 

 to the northward of the 19th degree of latitude *. This district 

 also abounds in genera of birds common in the Brazils, {icterits, 

 tanagra, lanius, and inuscicapa\ Linn.,) but on a close exami- 

 nation few of the species are found to extend to both continents. 



In the temperate region, where the cerealia are cultivated, 

 the animals accord little with those of South America, but re- 

 semble closely those of the east coast of North America — deer, 

 opossums, skunks, rabbits, squirrels, and other gnawers repla- 

 cing the southern monkeys and armadillos ; in place of parrots 

 there are party-coloured woodpeckers ; and instead of tanagers 

 and hepoazas we meet with thrushes, buntings, hedge-creepers, 

 and warblers. The couracous, humming birds, and troupials go 

 partially beyond this region to colder districts or higher lati- 

 tudes ; and it may be remarked of the couracous that they are 

 larger and more brilliant in the elevated Mexican woodlands 

 than in the Brazilian forests, while it may be affirmed of the 

 troupials that they spread from their most congenial residence 

 in the temperate regions of Mexico, northwards to the United 

 States, and southwards to Cayenne and Brazil. 



In the elevated cold region the fauna assumes an Europeo- 

 Asiatic character. The fields abound with hares, the woods 

 with squirrels ; and a destructive sand rat, resembling the Cana- 

 dian one, infests the maize grounds. There are also a spermo- 

 phile scarcely differing from the Siberian one, the " cacamitzli" 

 {bassaris astuta) a beast of prey of a new genus, one or two 



* The Sais, Saguins, Sloths, Tapirs, and Tajasous, also Brazilian, do not 

 exist in this district, but there are a few agoutis. — Lichtenstein. 



t The genera Pipra, Todus, Myothcra, Euphone, &c, arc wanting in the 

 warm district. — Lichtenstein. 



