20 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
depended upon: numerous instances might be men- 
tioned, where not only species, but genera, are said to 
inhabit countries, where, in fact, they are totally un- 
known, and to which their geographic range has mani- 
festly been prohibited. It is the misfortune of those 
who complain of the present refinement in zoological 
nomenclature, that they debar themselves from a know- 
ledge of these interesting facts ; and, by keeping up old 
names, contribute, unintentionally, to the continuance 
of error. It is necessary to state thus much, that the 
reader who may be disposed to go over the same ground 
with us, may be warned of the nature of the road he is 
to travel. He will, however, be materially assisted in 
his researches by the valuable Manuels of M. Temminck, 
the American Ornithology of Wilson, the admirable 
writings of Prince Ch. Bonaparte, and the Northern 
Zoology of Dr. Richardson. Much, however, of what 
we are now to state, has resulted from personal know- 
ledge ; and this has enabled us to reject, as spurious, 
many of the localities assigned to species in the general 
histories of birds. 
(25.) Commencing with the Arctic regions, we must 
again impress on the reader the small number of birds 
which are natives, during any considerable portion of the 
year, of the most northern extremities of Europe and its 
frozen islands. These do not exceed, both in the ter- 
restrial and aquatic orders, the number of twenty-two ; 
the larger proportion of which are also found, during 
the greater part of the year, in the northern parts of 
Britain, America, and probably in Asia: on this latter 
region, however, we possess but slender information. 
The foregoing species are chiefly composed of the nata- 
torial or swimming tribes,—of all others, perhaps, the 
most extensively dispersed: the total number of this 
order, hitherto discovered on the shores of Europe and 
Northern Africa, independent of such as are more pecu- 
liar to the Arctic circle, is sixty. Of these, two alone 
have been discovered in the four quarters of the globe ; 
three are common to Europe, Asia, and America ; one 
