46 



ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 



find these industrious and provident little creatures do 



not inhabit tropical countries, where all these instincts 



would be superfluous. The birds, so far as is yet known, 



appear to be of the same genera as those of Europe ; 



and many species are common to both regions. The 



beautiful rose-coloured starling 



" i^^Ht^ (^Pastor roseus Tern.), so rare 



" IBft^ in Europe {fig. II. '), is one 



V!^*P% of the most common birds of 



j^jJBMi'Jj temperate Asia. Many of the 



j^^mUj^^ aquatic species are also similar 



MMBI^^ to those of America ; but Pal- 



^^^^^^ l^s enumerates a long list of 



<^^>^^||^_ species unknown to either of 



-jfT^ s-^^ ^^^^T"" "_' these continents. We may sup- 

 "^'^-'iK^^^^^-^ pose, therefore, that the other 



animals, were they better un- 

 derstood, would agree in these characteristics. The en- 

 tomology of these northern latitudes is scarcely known. 

 i^'i.) The animals of the second Asiatic region are 

 very imperfectly known ; it is here, however, that we 

 begin to see those larger and more bulky quadrupeds 

 which are excluded from the frozen regions of Siberia. 

 The famous dzeggtai, or Mongolian horse {Eqiitis He- 

 niionus Pallas), the wild Asiatic sheep {Ovis Ammon.^, 

 and probably the Arnee buffalo, may be instanced as 

 characteristic of central Asia. To these we may add 

 the Tartaric or Yak ox {Bos Poephagus H. Smith), 

 whose southern range extends to the mountains of 

 Bhotan, where alone it has been hitherto seen. If 

 so many quadrupeds, of the first magnitude in their re- 

 spective families, inhabit these central regions, how 

 many others of a smaller size must still remain unknown 

 to science. The elegant little jumping jerboas {Dip^ts), 

 also, belong more properly to the central parts of Asia 

 and the warmer latitudes of Siberia : this genus ex- 

 tends to Egypt, but has never been found in the New 

 World, where it is represented only by that of Meriones 



{in.). 



