20 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 



depended upon : numerous instances might be men- 

 tionedj 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 maybe 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 Ooniitliology 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 locahties 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 



