

ANIMAL COLONISTS 53 



in the New World, is no less striking. All other 

 domesticated forms pigs, all breeds of English dogs, 

 prize poultry, and pigeons, in as great variety and 

 perfection as they attain in this country are equally 

 established in Australasia, and with them the red deer, 

 the pheasant, the trout, and, unfortunately, the rabbit 

 and the sparrow. In Australia, and still more notice- 

 ably in New Zealand, the new-comers, the most vigorous 

 representatives of the later types of animal, had a clear 

 advantage over the ancient marsupial forms and the 

 wingless birds. The pheasant, which can both run 

 and fly, displaces the New Zealand apteryx, and the 

 rabbit gets the better of the wallaby and smaller 

 kangaroos. 



But while the British animals, with the aid of their 

 owners, were displacing the native creatures of Austra- 

 lasia, they were achieving a parallel success in another 

 continent, and among a population who cannot be sus- 

 pected of any preferential leanings towards the animals 

 of these islands. The Spanish Republics of South 

 America were rapidly ' Anglicizing ' their flocks and 

 herds, originally descended and inherited from pure 

 Spanish stock. In Argentina the demand for British- 

 bred animals first arose among the flockmasters, though 

 cattle-raising was the earlier and national occupation. 

 But the improvement in wool effected by introducing 

 the best English breeds was rapid and obvious, while 



