TROPICAL AMERICA.— QUADRUPEDS. T7 
inhabited ; but as we avoided these districts, as unin- 
viting to the naturalist, so we cannot detail their pe- 
culiarities. The tinnamous (Crypturus Hl.) are the 
partridges of America, living among high grass, while 
the rufous baker-birds (Opetiorhynchus Tem.) are 
principally found in arid plains, always walking or 
perching upon the ground.—Such appears to be the 
local distribution of the vast variety of animals be- 
longing to this magnificent portion of the New World. 
It now only remains for us to take a hasty glance at the 
general zoology of the whole southern continent. 
(109.) Among the quadrupeds, we have already 
stated that the great variety of monkeys found in tro- 
pical America are essentially different from those of 
Africa and Asia. They are much smaller, more in- 
offensive, and bear little or no analogy to the satyr-like 
apes and disgusting baboons of the Old World: they 
have all tails, generally prehensile ; but are without 
cheek pouches or naked callosities on their hinder parts. 
The howling monkeys (Mycetes Ill.) live in the deep 
virgin forests, from which they send forth, morning and 
evening, such tremendous and frightful howls, as to 
impress the listener with the apprehension of some 
gigantic ferocious animal being very near. No less than 
sixty-five species of this family have been described as 
natives of South America. The bats are more nu- 
merous than in any part of the world: here, again, we 
see the wise provision of nature in adjusting the ba- 
lance between the insect world and those animals which 
draw their support from it. Many, however, live also 
upon fruit ; while others, like the large vampires of the 
Kast, enter the cattle sheds, and even the dwellings of 
man, to suck the blood of both. Horses and mules are 
constantly attacked in this manner during the night; 
and although never killed, are generally too weak to be 
used in work for several days: this we have frequently 
experienced. Very few of the bats above mentioned 
occur to the north of the line; and none either in 
Africa, Asia, or Europe. 
_ (110.) The carnivorous quadrupeds, or beasts of prey, 
