INTRODUCTION. 87 



promulgated by several of his successors, they were 

 framed without any definite reference either to the 

 dispersion of the human race, or to the harmonious 

 union of their parts. It was with a view, there- 

 fore, of attempting to generalize all that was then 

 known on the dispersion of animals, that we dis- 

 covered they could all be classed under the very 

 same geographic limits assigned by Cuvier and 

 Blumenbach to the five leading races of man ; and 

 into which the best geographers of the present day 

 have divided the globe. These may consequently 

 be considered zoological provinces, corresponding 

 to the several divisions of Europe, Asia, Africa, 

 America, and Australia. 



In stating, however, the general fact, that each 

 of the large divisions of our globe has its own pecu- 

 liar animals, the reader must not be led into the 

 belief that this law is altogether absolute, or that 

 there are not several examples of one and the same 

 species inhabiting countries, not only adjoining each 

 other, but sometimes laying widely asunder. Ex- 

 amples of the latter, however, are much more rare 

 than of the former. The animals of one range will 

 always be commingled with those of another, on the 

 confines of their respective countries : and there 

 must consequently be those lands debatable which 

 serve to connect two different districts or zoological 

 provinces : these may be likened to those softer and 

 graduating tints which serve to blend the opposite 

 colours of the rainbow, and produce that harmony 

 which pervades every part of creation. Some animals 



