SO ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
to live in families, and seldom to quit the vicinity of 
the place where they were born. 
(112.) The cavies, or agoutis, as they are some- 
times called, are the hares of Brazil (Dasyprocta IIL., 
Sig. 29.) : they have no tails, 
and feed entirely upon vege- 
tables ; shy in manners, and 
swift of foot, they live only 
in the forests and Catinga 
woods. The cattle and 
horses were first introduced 
into the New World by the 
early Spanish invaders, but they have now multiplied 
into immense herds, and range over the Campos and 
Pampas of the interior. Sheep are very scarce, and in 
many provinces almost unknown. 
(113.) The general ornithological features of Brazil 
have already been dwelt upon; while, as regards the 
number of species, this region may safely be pro- 
nounced the richest in the world. Not more than one 
fifth of the Brazilian empire, for instance, has been 
explored; yet it has already furnished upwards of 
500 different kinds of birds, and new ones are conti- 
nually sent by travelling collectors to Europe, by which 
the list is increased. We may, in some measure, ac- 
count for this abundance, by the fact that fruits and 
insects constitute the chief nourishment of this class ; 
and that both are peculiarly abundant in countries 
where vegetation is particularly luxuriant. 
(114.) The rapacious birds are very peculiar: large 
black vultures (Cathartes 
atratus, fig. 30., Sw. N. Z. ii. 
p. 6.), fully equal in size to 
our turkeys, are every where 
seen, perfectly tame, sitting 
on trees by the way side, and 
ready to devour offal, or any 
animal substance deprived of 
life. Whether these vultures 
are of the same species as the 
