CENTRAL EUROPE. $1 
(43.) The first indications of the zoology of Central 
Europe may be said to commence towards the 60th 
degree of north latitude, where a sensible change in the 
number and in the species of animals may be perceived. 
Vegetation supplies food for insects, no less than for 
birds; while the former become the prey of the latter: 
thus the supplies of nature are accurately balanced, with 
a considerate regard to the wants of all her creatures. 
This accession of fertility in the vegetable kingdom is 
accompanied by an accession of animals ; the land birds 
increase, while the aquatic tribes diminish in numbers, 
although not in species. Most of the Arctic birds, how- 
ever, occur in the northern parts of Scotland, and in 
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Miller, the celebrated 
Danish naturalist, enumerates fifty-seven quadrupeds 
and 131 birds, as natives of his own country: among the 
former, seventeen only are marine; while the land birds 
amount to eighty-seven, exclusive of twenty-six eagles, 
falcons, and owls. On comparing this statement with 
that already cited of the animals of Greenland, we ob- 
serve a considerable diminution of the marine Mam- 
malia, and a large addition to the terrestrial birds, this 
latter fact being accounted for by the circumstances 
above mentioned. As we approach farther south, this 
increase becomes more apparent, and can be traced even 
within the limits of our own islands. Several species 
of the polar regions, common to the north of Scotland, 
are unknown in the west of England ; which, never- 
theless, exhibits a much greater number of others, which 
that kingdom does not possess ; this is particularly the 
case among the insects of the two countries. Even 
among the domesticated animals, a greater developement 
of size is apparent in the horse, the sheep, and the ox 
of England, than in those of Scotland ; while the pea- 
cock, turkey, and Guinea-fowl, so perfectly naturalised 
in our climate, are reared and preserved with great 
difficulty towards the north of Scotland. 
(44.) It appears, therefore, from the foregoing observy- 
ations, that the southern part of Central Europe is the re- 
