GEOGEAPHICAL DISTBIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 495 



find a still different fauna. There he will no longer observe 

 the large quadrupeds he found in Africa, and the family of 

 the apes will be replaced by other mammals, equally well 

 formed to climb trees, but more resembling the carnivora, 

 and called by naturalists the MaJcis : he will meet with the 

 Aye-aye, an animal of the most singular nature, which seems 

 to be the object of a sort of veneration on the part of the in- 

 habitants, and which partakes at the same time of the nature of 

 the squirrel and of the monkey ; the tenrecs, small insectivorous 

 mammals, which have the back protected with spines or 

 quills, like our hedgehogs, but which yet do not roll them- 

 selves up into a ball ; the cleft-nosed chameleon, and several 

 curious reptiles not found elsewhere, as well as insects no less 

 characteristic of this region. 



627. Still travelling onwards and arriving in India, our 

 traveller will find an elephant distinct from that of Africa ; 

 oxen, bears, rhinoceroses, antelopes ; stags, equally different 

 from those of Europe and of Africa ; the ourang-outang, and 

 a number of other apes peculiar to these countries ; the royal 

 tiger, the argus, the peacock, the pheasant, and an almost 

 innumerable multitude of birds, reptiles, and insects unknown 

 elsewhere. 



628. Should he afterwards visit New Holland, still 

 everything will be new to him, and the aspect of this fauna 

 will appear to him still more strange than that of the various 

 zoological populations he had already passed in review. He 

 will then no longer find animals analogous to our oxen, 

 horses, bears, and to a great number of our large carnivora: 

 the quadrupeds of great stature will be found totally wanting, 

 and he will discover the kangaroo, the flying phalanger, and 

 the ornithorhynchus. 



629. Finally, if our traveller, in order to return to his 

 native country, should traverse the vast continent of America, 

 he will discover there a fauna analogous to that of the Old 

 World, but composed almost entirely of different species : he 

 will there find apes with prehensile tails; large carnivora, 

 sufficiently resembling our lions and tigers, bisons, lamas, 

 tatous ; finally, birds, reptiles, and insects, equally remarkable, 

 and equally new to him. 



630. Differences no less striking in the species of ani- 

 mals peculiar to different regions of the globe, are observable, 

 when, instead of confining our observation to the inhabitants 

 of the land, we examine the myriads of living beings which 



