400 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



of South America at a far greater distance from the equator than is the case on 

 the North American seaboard. Thus molluscs of the voluta and oliva types, which 

 do not occur in the United States beyond the thirteenth degree of latitude, are 

 seen in abundance as far south as the parallel of Bahia Blanca (39° S. lat.) in 

 Patagonia. The voluta is common even in Magellan Strait, about 1,000 miles 

 farther south. A phenomenon of analogous character is presented by the marine 

 fauna on the southern shores of the African Continent.* 



The Rio Negro forms approximately the divide between the Argentine and 

 Patagonian zoological zones. This line is never crossed by certain species, such 

 as the nandu ostrich {rhea Americana) and the smaller rhea Darwinii, which keep 

 to their respective northern and southern domains. The Patagonian jaguar also 

 is of much smaller size than the Chaco species. 



Another natural parting-line is formed by the barrier of the Andes, although 

 these frontiers are surmounted by some animals. The puma {felis concolor) ranges 

 as far south as the Magellan Strait, and Patagonia is also inhabited by two 

 kinds of wild cats, dogs, a small armadillo {(i(is//pus minutus), and mice, more 

 numerous here than in any other part of the world. The Condor, which in 

 Ecuador descends not even to the level of the Andean foothills, in Patagonia 

 sweeps down to the shores of the Atlantic. In this terminal region reptiles are 

 rare, and laud and lacustrine molluscs relatively still rarer. Marine life of all 

 kinds — birds, cetaceans, fish, and lower organisms — abounds in the Magellanic 

 archipelagoes, although some species are already threatened with destruction. 

 The penguins, formerly met in myriads drawn up like soldiers on the overhanging 

 rocks, have disappeared from several of the insular groups. 



In North Argentina three families of monkeys are still represented in the 

 forest regions of the Missions and Corrientes, and farther west on the slopes of 

 the Jujuy and Salta mountains towards the Bolivian frontier. Bats are much 

 rarer than in Brazil, and the phyllostome vampire is no longer seen south of 

 Tucuman ; even here it is much less dangerous than in the tropics. The carnivora 

 are represented by numerous species, although the felidoe, such as the Jaguar 

 and Ocelot, are retreating before the farmers and other settlers. In the Piatean 

 regions the puma never attacks man, and will not even defend itself except by 

 tears from his assaults. This point has been much discussed by naturalists; but 

 the fact has been placed beyond doubt by the researches of Mr. Hudson, who 

 mentions several authentic cases, and suggests an explanation of the remarkable 

 phenomenon. " All that I had previously heard," he writes, " had compelled me to 

 believe that the puma really does possess a unique instinct of friendliness for man, 

 the origin of which, like that of many other well-known instincts of animals, must 

 remain a mystery. The fact that the puma never makes an unprovoked attack 

 on a human being, or eats human flesh, and that it refuses, except in some rare 

 cases, even to defend itself, does not seem really less wonderful in an animal of its 

 bold and sanguinary temper, than that it should follow the traveller in the wilder- 



* Henry A. Ward, Rivisia del Musco Je La Plata, Vol. I. 1890-91. 



