tltJADRUPEDS. 291 



•Hght observance of the physical characters and other local 

 peculiarities of countries, which prevailed prior to that 

 period, rendered the precise induction of general vievps a 

 matter of extreme difficulty ; and, as navigators and naval 

 adventurers of every class were indifferent to the accuracy of 

 science, and ignorant of the valuable results which might 

 spring from a more correct record of the localities of species, 

 our knowledge of these localities did not increase in the same 

 proportion as the species themselves. Even at the present 

 day our collections are frequently rendered of little avail for 

 the purposes of zoological geography, by the products of one 

 country being intermingled with those of another : thus, the 

 splendidly- feathered tribes of Rio Janeiro are frequently 

 combined with the scarcely less brilliant birds of New-Hol- 

 land and Van Diemen's Land ; while the student of Indian 

 entomology labours under a similar chance of error, in find- 

 ing the Asiatic insects arranged by the merchant along with 

 an additional supply from the Cape of Good Hope. These 

 and other sources of confusion have long retarded our know- 

 ledge of the geography of animals. 



The habits and dispositions of animals result from their 

 structure, and that structure is invariably adapted to the 

 local circumstances under which they are naturally placed. 

 It must not, however, be supposed that the geographical 

 distribution of species can ever form a proper basis for their 

 zoological classification. Many natural families and genera 

 are so extensively distributed as to be almost equally cha- 

 racteristic of every quarter of the globe. The wolf and the 

 reindeer are common both to Europe and America ; and the 

 lion occurs in the forests of Asia as well as among the Afri- 

 can deserts. These, however, are exceptions to the general 

 rule ; for it will be found, on examination, that every great 

 continent, or extensive tract of country, though possessed 

 of features which, to a certain degree, assimilate it to those 

 of other regions, is yet distinguished by many characters 

 entirely peculiar to itself, and which constitute its zoologi- 

 cal aspect. Thus the kangaroo and the omithorynchus are 

 characteristic of, because peculiar to, New-Holland ; the 

 lamas and vicunhas are only found in South America ; the 



fke Sacred Ibis, &c, are intentionally omitted, as being characteristic of 

 certain portions of the African continent, the general history of whicb 

 *)es not fall within the scope of the present voliune.— J. W. 



