90 INTRODUCTION. 



a long time, our house-swallow, Hlrundo rustica, 

 was believed to fly both to Africa and America; 

 but that of the latter country has been found to be 

 quite a distinct species. 



The American race of mankind is certainly the 

 most distinct, for it is only towards its northern 

 extremity that we find in the Esquimaux tribes an 

 approximation to the Finlanders of Europe or the 

 Kamtschatka families of Asia. Now this is precisely 

 the case in respect to the distribution of birds. In 

 the Arctic Regions, more than four-fifths of the 

 species discovered during the northern expeditions 

 are actually the same as those of northern Europe, 

 but of these only nine are land birds. Beyond these 

 limits the ornithology of America begins to assume 

 the same isolated character so conspicuous in the 

 phisiognomy of its human races. 



Such are a few only of the results that have 

 attended our investigations on the geographic distri- 

 bution of animals, but more especially of birds. And 

 we merely introduce these general remarks on the 

 present occasion, that our juvenile or unscientific 

 readers may form ideas on the subject at large, and 

 on the " local habitation," which the secret and 

 mysterious laws of a beneficent Creator have imposed 

 on the countless beings which cover this goodly 

 earth. The arrowy course of the swallow the 

 wanderings of the albatross or the soaring of the 

 eagle are all directed to certain points, and are 

 confined within limits, invisible indeed to the ma- 

 terial eye, yet as impassable and as exclusive as a 



