A ME III C A. 



The animals are still more peculiar ; and of those 

 which have not the means of passing by emigration 

 between America and other places, there are few that 

 can be considered as common to it and to the other 

 parts of the world. Our limits will admit of a notice 

 of the vertebrated animals only ; and even that must 

 be brief and imperfect. But it is probable that, if 

 they were as well understood, the invertebrated ani- 

 mals would be found to be just as peculiar and as 

 characteristic of the country. 



The sea fishes, the cetacea, and the seals, are not, 

 strictly speaking, inhabitants of any country ; some of 

 them range over I he ocean, and probably circumna- 

 vigate the world in all its latitudes and longitudes, 

 and those which are more confined, still range the 

 north seas, from Europe to America on the one hand, 

 and from Asia to America on the other. The pela- 

 gic fishes do the same ; and so also do many of the 

 bank fishes, and the marine chclonia. The cod of 

 the great bank of Newfoundland does not appear to 

 differ specifically from that of the Dogger Bank be- 

 tween Britain and the Continent, at least not more 

 than they differ upon some of our own banks which 

 arc not very far apart from each other. The green 

 turtle of the West Indies appears to be exactly the 

 same species as that which is captured on the shores 

 of New Holland; and the hawk's bill or "shell" 

 turtle of the Malay islands in the east appears to 

 ilitter in nothing from that which is captured in the 

 Bay of Honduras in the west. Many of the migrant 

 bird*, which nestle and spend the summer upon the 

 arctic shores of America, are certainly the same spe- 

 cies, and in many instances probably the very same 

 individuals, which spend part of the summer with us. 



In the fresh water fishes and reptiles more pecu- 

 liarity may be looked for ; and there are certainly 

 many species in the American rivers, to which we 

 have none exactly corresponding in Europe, though 

 to what the difference may be owing it is not so very 

 easy to say. Some of the tortoises of the American 

 rivers are certainly, in so far as is known, peculiar ; and 

 probably the same may be said of some of the aquatic 

 saiiria. Many of the land sai'ria are certainly pecu- 

 liar ; and so also are the ophidia as for instance 

 those two most formidable of poisonous serpents, the 

 rattlesnake of North America, and the bushmaster 

 of South America. 



The birds of America, with the exception of the 

 migrant species, are almost all peculiar, and very 

 many of them unknown, or represented by races spe- 

 cifically different, in the other parts of the world. As 

 is the case with the other natural productions, we 

 find the closest resemblance in the north, where we 

 have reason to expect that there may at times be a 

 passage from the one continent to the other. So far as 

 the American species are known, the grouse and par- 

 tridges of the two continents very much resemble 

 each other, though they are not perhaps exactly the 

 same; and if well made out, the species or varieties in 

 America will probably be found to be the more nu- 

 merous. The gallinfe are different, there being no 

 American birds at all resembling the common fowl, 

 the peacock, or the pheasant; while, on the other 

 hand, there is no native bird of the old continent 

 answering to the turkey of America. Other than the 

 turkey there is no bird of a strictly gallinaceous 

 character in North America; but in South, where 

 the character of the country is, in certain places and 

 at certain times, Ix-ltcr suited to the habits of such 



NAT. HIST. VOL. 1. 



birds, we find the Alcctorula;. Tlie Agami, and some 

 other species, may be considered as in some respects 

 resembling the bustards of the eastern continent, but. 

 their structures and habits are not quite the same. 

 The nnndu, or ostrich of South America, differs 

 from the African ostrich, both in being smaller and 

 in the different structure of the feet. Instead of run- 

 ning upon the loose sand, like its African congener, 

 it runs among the herbage; inhabiting climes which 

 are not quite so warm, and feeding on pastures which 

 are not quite so barren. It has three toes on each 

 foot, all furnished with nails, and it. inhabits, from the 

 plains in the interior of Brazil as far south as the ex- 

 tremity of the continent. The most singular races of 

 birds on the American continent are the toucans and 

 humming birds of the southern forests; the last of 

 which are. equally remarkable for their diminutive 

 size, the brilliancy of their colours, and their power 

 of wing.- It should seem as if they were made to 

 rival the beauty of those flowers among which they 

 are found hovering, and fanning their tiny wings with 

 a rapidity and continuance of motion, which almost 

 takes them out of the class of beings which have their 

 muscular energy clogged by physical weight. They 

 range far and wide over the southern part of the con- 

 tinent, and apparently unaffected by the rigour of the 

 climate: Some of the species are found at the very 

 southern extremity. 



The land mammalia have their characters, of 

 course, much more in accordance with those of the 

 land than any other of the classes of vertebrated ani- 

 mals ; and it is in their peculiarities that we see most 

 clearly the peculiarities of the American continent. 

 Man, even in the lowest state of civilisation, is 

 adapted, morally as well as physically, to the soil and 

 other ciicumstances in which he is placed ; and on 

 that account, if we include man in our estimate of the- 

 adaptation of the mammalia to their country, the 

 argument will be weakened and vitiated to the full 

 extent to which he exercises his mental powers. 



In America we find proof?, both that man is so far 

 modified by the physical circumstances in which he 

 is placed, and that he is in other respects proof against 

 those circumstances and can control them. In the ex- 

 treme north of America we find the Esquimaux nearly 

 the same polar people which are found in the extreme 

 north of the other continent, and who, in all the 

 movements of nations, do not appear ever to have 

 made any progress southward. We look in vain, in 

 even the moderately temperate parts of Europe or 

 Asia, for any colony of the Laplanders or the Samoi- 

 edes ; and so also we look in vain among even the 

 inhospitable lands of North America for any colony 

 of the Esquimaux. They do come upon the margin 

 of the land in the summer; but in the winter the 

 frozen sea is their wealth, and the ice and snow arc 

 their habitation and shelter. Instead of the reindeer, 

 they no doubt yoke dogs to their sledges, because 

 the rein deer cannot subsist upon the surface of the 

 frozen sea, and live upon the flesh and offal of seals 

 and other aquatic animals. But still the races have 

 the same appearance, the same habits, and the same 

 superstitions; and, like all people whose lives are, in 

 our estimation, hardly worth living, their grand ex- 

 citements, their most intense hopes ;MK! fears, are 

 with the dead. This tendency of man to people the 

 northern desolation with creatures of the imagination, 

 the contemplation of which shall so eke out the scanty 

 tale of the occurrences and experience of his lii 

 N 



