296 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



digestive organs are not adapted. Pigeons can be brought to feed on flesh, and hawks 

 on bread. Sheep, when accidentally overwhelmed with snow, have been known to eat 

 the wool off each other's backs. 



1996. The various diseases to which animals are subject tend greatly to shorten the 

 period of their existence. With the methods of cure employed by difierent species we 

 are but little acquainted. Few accurate observations appear to have been made on the 

 subject. Dogs frequently effect a cure of their sores by licking them. They eat grass 

 to excite vomiting, and probably to cleanse their intestines from obstructions or worms, 

 by its mechanical effects. Many land animals promote their health by bathing, others 

 by rolling themselves in the dust. By the last operation, they probably get rid of the 

 parasitical insects with which they are infested. 



1997. But independently of scarciti/, or disease, comparatively few animals live to the 

 ordinary term of natural death, Tliere is a wasteful war every wliere raging in the 

 animal kingdom. Tribe is divided against tribe, and species against species, and neu- 

 trality is nowhere respected. Those which are preyed upon have certain means which 

 they employ to avoid the foe ; but the rapacious are likewise qualified for the pursuit. 

 The exercise of the feelings of benevolence may induce us to confine our attention to 

 the former, and adore that goodness which gives shelter to the defenceless, and pro- 

 tection to the weak, wliile we may be disposed to turn precipitately from viewing the 

 latter, lest we discover marks of cruelty, where we wished to contemplate nothing but 

 kindness. But we should recollect, that, to the lower animals, destitute as they are of 

 the means of attending to the aged or diseased, sudden death is a merciful substitute for 

 the lingering tortures of starvation. 



Chap. VI. 

 On the Distribution of Animals. 



1998. Oti a superficial view, vegetables seem more abundant than animals : so contrary, 

 however, is this to fact, that the species of animals, when compared with those of plants, 

 may be considered in the proportion of 10 to 1. Hence it follows that botany, when 

 compared with zoology, is a very limited study : plants, when considered in relation 

 to insects alone, bear no proportion in the number of the species. The phanerogamous 

 plants of Britain have been estimated in round numljers at 1 500, while the insects that 

 have already been discovered in this country (and probably many hundreds still remain 

 unknown) amount to 10,000, which is more than six insects to one plant. It is there- 

 fore obvious that the knowledge acquired on the geographical distribution of animals, in 

 comparison with what is known of plants, is slight and unsatisfactory : it is likewise 

 attended with difficulties inseparable from the nature of beings so numerous and diver- 

 sified, and which will always render it comparatively imperfect. It rarely happens that 

 a single specimen of a plant is found isolated ; the botanist can therefore immediately 

 arrive at certain conclusions : if he is in a mountainous country, he is enabled to trace, 

 without much difficulty, the lowest and the highest elevation at which a particular species 

 is found ; and the nature of the soil, which may be considered the food of the plant, is at 

 once known. But these advantages do not attend the zoologist : his business is with 

 beings perpetually moving upon the earth, or hid in the depths of ocean, performing 

 numerous functions in secret ; while of the marine tribes he can never hope to be 

 acquainted with more than a very insignificant portion. The following observations 

 must therefore be considered as merely an outline of those general laws which seem to 

 regulate the geography of animals. 



1999. The distribution of animals on the face of the globe must be considered under two 

 heads, general and particular. The first relates to families or groups inhabiting par- 

 ticular zones, and to others by which they are represented in another hemisphere. The 

 second refers to the local distribution of the animals of any particular country, or to that 

 of individual species. It is to the general distribution of groups, as a celebrated writer 

 has well observed, that the philosophic zoologist should first direct his attention, rather 

 than to the locality of species. By studying nature in her higher groups, we discover 

 that certain functions are developed under different forms, and we begin to discern 

 something of the great plan of providence in the creation of animals, and arrive at 

 general results, which must be for ever hid from those who limit their views to the 

 habitations of species, or to the local distribution of animals. 



2000. Animals, like plants, are generally found to be distributed in zones. Fabricius, 

 in speaking of insects, divides the globe into eight climates, which he denominates the 

 Indian, Egyptian, southern, Mediterranean, northern, oriental, occidental, and alpine. 

 In the first he includes the tropics ; in the second, the northern region immediately 

 adjacent ; in the third, the southern j in the fourth, the countries bordering on the Medi- 



