TROPICAL AMERICA. QUADRUPEDS. 77 



inhabited ; but as we avoided these districts, as unin- 

 viting to the naturalist, so we cannot detail their pe- 

 culiarities. The tinnamous (^Crypturus 111.) are the 

 partridges of America, living among high grass, while 

 the rufous baker-birds {Opetiorhi/nchus Tern.) 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 111.; 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 

 East, 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. \'ery 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. 



