CENTRAL EUROPE. 31 



(43.) The first indications of the zoology of Central 

 Europe may be said to commence towards the 6'0th 

 degree of north latitude, where a sensible change in the 

 number and in the species of animals may be perceived. 

 Vegetation supplies food for insects, no less than for 

 birds; while the former become the prey of the latter: 

 thus the supplies'^of nature are accurately balanced, with 

 a considerate regard to the wants of all her creatures. 

 This accession of fertility in the vegetable kingdom is 

 accompanied by an accession of animals ; the land birds 

 increase, while the aquatic tribes diminish in numbers, 

 although not in species. Most of the Arctic birds, how- 

 ever, occur in the northern parts of Scotland, and in 

 Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Miiller, the celebrated 

 Danish naturalist, enumerates fifty-seven quadrupeds 

 and 131 birds, as natives of his own country : among the 

 former, seventeen only are marine; while the land birds 

 amount to eighty-seven, exclusive of twenty-six eagles, 

 falcons, and owls. On comparing this statement with 

 that already cited of the animals of Greenland, we ob- 

 serve a considerable diminution of the marine -Mam- 

 malia, arid a large addition to the terrestrial birds, this 

 latter fact being accounted for by the circumstances 

 above mentioned. As we approach farther south, this 

 increase becomes more apparent, and can be traced even 

 within the limits of our own islands. Several species 

 of the polar regions, common to the north of Scotland, 

 are unknown in the west of England ; which, never- 

 theless, exhibits a much greater number of others, which 

 that kingdom does not possess ; this is particularly the 

 case among the insects of the two countries. Even 

 among the domesticated animals, a greater developement 

 of size is apparent in the horse, the sheep, and the ox 

 of England, than in those of Scotland ; while the pea- 

 cock, turkey, and Guinea-fowl, so perfectly naturalised 

 in our climate, are reared and preserved with great 

 difficulty towards the north of Scotland. 



(44.) It appears, therefore, from the foregoing observ- 

 ations, that the southern part of Central Europe is the re- 



