30 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



richest, our eyes being at once greeted by the elephant, 

 rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, the buffalo, the giraffe, and 

 the zebra, with a vast array of antelopes, the lion, and the 

 great man-like' apes. The most cursory inspection of these 

 two rooms will teach the visitor a lesson in natural history 

 that he will not learn by a dozen visits to our great 

 national storehouse at South Kensington — the lesson that 

 each continent has its peculiar forms of life, and that the 

 greatest similarity in geographical position and climate 

 may be accompanied by a complete diversity in the animal 

 inhabitants. 



When we examine the birds, the difference between the 

 two continents is almost equally great, although not so 

 conspicuous to any one but an ornithologist. The great 

 bulk of the South American groups have no representatives 

 whatever in Africa. Instead of toucans we have hornbills 

 and turacos ; instead of humming-birds we have the totally 

 different group of sunbirds ; instead of the tyrants, hang- 

 nests, and chatterers, we have flycatchers, starlings, and 

 orioles ; instead of bush-shrikes and ant-thrushes we have 

 true shrikes and caterpillar-catchers — in almost every 

 case a high grade of organization in Africa in place of 

 the low grade in South America. Passing over the rep- 

 tiles and fishes, as not presenting forms sufficiently well 

 known or whose external characteristics are sufficiently 

 distinctive, we find in the insects equally marked differ- 

 ences. The African butterflies have a peculiar style of 

 form and colouring, distinguishing them from those of 

 most other parts of the world, sober greens and blues or 

 rich orange browns being common. The Heliconidse of 

 America are here replaced by the allied but distinct sub- 

 family of the Acrseidse, while among beetles the huge 

 goliaths and the monstrous tiger-beetles are altogether 

 peculiar. 



The next room we enter is the Indian, or Indo-Malayan ; 

 and here the scene again changes, though not so radically 

 as we found to be the case in passing from South America 

 to Africa. There are still many great mammalia, but of 

 distinct characteristic forms ; the tiger replaces the lion, 

 deer and bears are abundant groups, which are entirely 



