CHAPTER YII. 



ANIMAL LIFE IN WESTERN EUROPE. 



UR, extensive survey is rapidly drawing to a 

 close, and our examination of the principal 

 regions of the Temperate Zone brings us at 

 last to Western Europe and the British 

 Islands. Here again w^e meet with a considerable variety 

 of climate : Spain almost approaches the temperature of 

 the Tropics, while some portions of Germany are visited 

 by a winter of Arctic severity. Nor is there a less con- 

 siderable variety of scenery. How wide the difference be- 

 tween the landscapes of Andalusia and those of Saxony ! 

 between those of Holland and those of Britain ! Yet, as 

 all the countries included in Western Europe have long 

 been inhabited by civilized races, and subjected to a care- 

 ful cultivation, we shall not find any remarkable differ- 

 ences in the character of their fauna. Science has assisted 

 man in contending against physical and climatic difficulties; 

 and genera and species have been naturalized in the one 

 country as in the other which the naturalist would not, 

 a priori, expect to find there. Moreover, the progress of 

 cultivation has exterminated the larger quadrupeds, except 



