4o8 



NATURE 



[Sept. 9, 1875 



The French are now j^ubltshing a work on the results of their 

 scientific expedition to Mexico dining the short-lived. Empire. 

 Three parts on the Reptiles by Dumeril and Bocourt were issued 

 in 1870, and a part on the Fishes, by L. Vaillant, has recently 

 appeared. 



A paper on the Mammals of Costa Rica has lately been 

 published by v. Frantzius in Wiegmann's Archiv. Unfor- 

 tunately, it seems to have been drawn up mainly from notes 

 without reference to the specimens in the Berlin Museum, but 

 nevertheless contains much that is useful and of interest. 



Dr. Giinther's admirable memoir of the fishes of Central 

 America, published in the Zoological Society's " Transactions " 

 in 1869, is based upon the collections made by Capt. Dow 

 in various parts of the coast, and by Messrs. Salvin and 

 Godman in the freshwater lakes of the highlands of Guatemala 

 and in other localities. 



Its value in relation to our general knowledge of the fishes of 

 this portion of America, heretofore so imperfectly known, can 

 hardly be over-estimated. As regards the birds of Central 

 America, it is much to be regretted that we have at present no 

 one authority to refer to. The collection of Messrs. Salvin and 

 Godman embraces very large series from differem parts of this 

 region, and together with those of my own collection, wherein 

 are the types of the species described in my own papers, would 

 afford abundant materials for such a task. Mr. Salvin and I 

 have often formed .plans for a joint work on this subject, and I 

 trust we may before long see our way to its accomplishment. 

 A similar memoir on the Mammals of Central America is like- 

 wise of pressing necessity for the better understanding of the 

 Neotropical Mammal Fauna. There are considerable materials 

 available for this purpose in the collections of Salvin and Arce 

 in the British Museum, and I trust that some naturalist may 

 shortly be induced to take up this subject. 



2. The Andean or Columbian Sub-region. 



Of this extensive sub-region, which traverses six or seven 

 different States, there is likewise no one zoological account ; 

 but I may mention some of the principal works lately issued 

 that bear upon the subject. Leotaud's "Birds of Trinidad" 

 gives us an account of the ornithology of that island, which 

 forms a kind of appendage to this sub-region, and Dr. Finsch 

 has more recently published a supplementary notice of them. 

 Of Venezuela, Columbia, and Ecuador there are only scattered 

 memoirs in various periodicals on the numerous collections 

 that have of late years been made in those countries to be 

 referred to. Several excellent collectors are now, or lately have 

 been, resident in these republics, HerrGeoringand Mr. Spence in 

 Venezuela, Mr. Salmon in Antioquia, Professor Jameson and 

 Mr. Eraser in Ecuador, whose labours have vastly added to 

 our knowledge of the zoology of these districts. When 

 we come to Peru, we have Tschudi's "Fauna Peruana" to 

 refer to, which, though unsatisfactory in execution, contains 

 much of value. How far from being exhausted is the rich 

 fauna of the Peruvian Andes, is sufficiently manifest from the 

 wonderful discoveries lately made by Jelski in the district east 

 of Lima, which was in fact that principally investigated by 

 Tschudi. Of these, M. Taczanowski has lately given an 

 account as regards the birds in the Zoological Society's " Pro- 

 ceedings " ; and Dr. Peters has published several notices 

 of the more remarkable Mammals and Reptdes. 



Further south, in Bolivia, our leading authority is still the 

 zoological portion of D'Orlaigny's "Voyage dans I'Amerique 

 Meridionale." This rich and most interesting distiict has, it is 

 true, been visited by several collectors since D'Orbigny's time ; 

 but the results of their journeys have never been published in a con- 

 nected form, though many of their novelties have been described. 

 Bolivia, I do not doubt, still contains many new and extraordi- 

 nary creatures hid in the recesses of its niountain valleys ; and 

 there is no part of South America which I should sooner suggest 

 as a promising locality for the zoological collector. 



3. The Amazonian Sub-region. 

 On Guiana, where the Amazonian fauna seems to have 

 had its origin, we have a standard work in Schomburgk's 

 "Reise," the third volume of which, containing the Fauna, 

 was drawn up by the Naturalist of the Berlin Museum. 

 For the valley of the Amazons itself, the volumes of Spix 

 and Martius, though not very accurate, and rather out of date, 

 must still be referred to, as likewise the zoology of Castelnau's 

 " Expedition dans I'Amerique du Sud," for the natural history 

 of the Peruvian confluents. As regards the birds, however, we 



have several more recent authorities. In 1873 Mr. Salvin and 

 I published in tlie Zoological Society's "Proceedings" a rhumi 

 of the papers treating of Mr. E. Bartlett's and Mr. John 

 Hauxwell's rich ornithological collections on the Iluallaga, 

 Ucayali, and other localities in Eastern Peru. Subsequently 

 we communicated to the same Society an account of Mr. E. 

 L. Layard's collection of birds made near Para, and took 

 occasion to deduce therefrom some general ideas as to the re- 

 lations of the Avifauna of the Lower Amazons. 



As regards the two lower great confluents of the Amazons, Rio 

 Madeira on the light bank, and the Rio Negro on the left bank 

 of the mighty river, our knowledge of their avifaunas is 

 mainly due to the researches of Johann Natterer— -one of the 

 most successful and energetic zoological collectors that ever 

 lived — of whose discoveries in ornithology a complete account 

 has lately been first publishe I by Mr. A. v. Pelzeln, of Vienna. 

 It is much to be wished that a similar resume of Natterer's 

 discoveries and collections of Mammals, in which order his 

 investigations were of hardly less importance, should be given 

 to the world ; and I trust Herr v. Pelzeln will forgive me if I 

 press this subject on his attention. 



The fishes of the Amazons and its confluents are many and 

 various, and fully deserve a special monograph. The late Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz made his well-known expedition up the Amazons 

 in 1865 with the particular view of studying its fishes, and 

 amassed enormous collections of specimens for the purpose.* 

 Whether (as other naturalists have hinted) Professor Auassii's 

 estimate of the number of new and undescribed species con- 

 tained in their collection was exaggerated or not is at present 

 uncertain, as the specimens unfortunately lie unstudied in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass. It is a 

 thousand pities this state of things should continue ; and I 

 venture to suggest to the great Professor's numerous friends and 

 admirers in the U. S. that no more appropriate tribute to his 

 memory could be raised than the publication of a monograph of 

 Amazonian fishes based on their collections. 



4. The South-Brazilian Sub-region. 



This sub-region, which embraces the wood region of S.E. 

 Brazil and adjoining districts, and contains in nearly every branch 

 of zoology a set ot species and genera allied to but separable 

 from those of the x\mazoniau Sub-region, has been much fre- 

 quented by European naturalists. Its productions are con- 

 sequently tolerably well known, though there is even here still 

 very much to be done. Burmeister's " Systematische Ubersicht " 

 and " Erliiuterungen " maybe referred to for information on 

 its Mammals and Birds ; likewise Prince Max. of New Wied, 

 "Beitriige," which, although of old standing in point of date, is 

 still of great value. The late Dr. Otto Wucherer, a German 

 physician resident at Bahia, paid much attention to the Reptiles 

 of that district, and has written an account of its Ophidians 

 which will be found in the Zoological Society's "Proceedings." 



Ilr. Henselhas also recently publi.-hed in Wiegman's "Archiv" 

 a valuable memoir on Mammals collected in South Brazil, 

 which should be referred to. Prof. Reinhardt has recently com- 

 pleted an excellent account of the avifauna of the Campos of 

 Brazil, based on his own collections and those of Dr. D. W. 

 Lund ; and Hr. v. Berlepscli has treated of the birds of 

 Santa Catharina. These are all three most useful contribu- 

 tions to our knowledge of this sub-region. But it is melancholy 

 to think that although a [soi-disant) highly civilised European 

 race has resided in the Brazilian Empire so long, and has intro- 

 duced railways, steamboats, and many other of the appliances of 

 modern Europe, there has never, so far as I know, been pro- 

 duced by them any one single memoir worthy of mention on 

 the teeming variety of zoological life that everywhere surrounds 

 them. 



For information on the animals of Paraguay we must still 

 refer to the writings of Don Felix d'Azara, and to Dr. Hart- 

 laub's reduction of his Spanish terms to scientific nomenclature. 

 But modern information about this part of the South-Brazilian 

 Sub-region would be very desirable. 



5. The Patagonian Sub-region. 



For the zoology of the Argentine Republic, which forms the 

 northern portion of this sub-region, the best work of reference 

 is the second volume of Dr. Burmeister's " La- Plata Reise," 

 which contains a synopsis of the Vertebrates of the Republic. 

 Dr. Burmeister, who is now resident at Buenos Ayres as director 



"* See "Travels in Brazil," by Prof, and Mrs. Louis Agassiz, Boston, 



