Chap. III. FAUNA OF PARA. 109 



as these, we must compare closely the species found in 

 the district with those of the other contiguous regions, 

 and endeavour to ascertain whether they are identical, 

 (ir only slightly modified, or whether they are highly 

 peculiar. 



Von Martins, when he visited this part of Brazil 

 forty years ago, coming from the south, was much 

 struck with the dissimilarity of the animal and vegetable 

 productions to those of other parts of Brazil. In fact, 

 the Fauna of Para, and the lower part of the Amazons, has 

 no close relationship with that of Brazil proper ; but it 

 has a very great affinity with that of the coast region of 

 Guiana, from Cayenne to Demerara. If we may judge 

 from the results afforded by the study of certain families 

 of insects, no peculiar Brazilian forms are found in the 

 Para district ; whilst more than one-half the total 

 number are essentially Guiana species, being found 

 nowhere else but in Guiana and Amazonia. Many of 

 them, however, are modified from the Guiana type, and 

 about one-seventh seem to be restricted to Para. These 

 endemic species are not highly peculiar, and they may 

 be yet found over a great part of Northern Brazil wdien 

 the country is better explored. They do not warrant us 

 in concluding that the district forms an independent pro- 

 vince, although they show that its Fauna is not wholly 

 derivative, and that the land is probably not entirely a 

 new formation. From all these facts, I think we must 

 conclude that the Para district belongs to the Guiana 

 province, and that, if it is newer land than Guiana, it 

 must have received the great bulk of its animal popu- 

 lation from that region. I am informed by Dr. Sclater 



