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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



immerse the bill to the base, and take a long draught ; a circumstance in which Pigeons 

 differ from GalHnaceous birds. Nor does the Cushat, Uke them, scrape up the earth 

 with its feet, while searching for food. 



Early in spring the Cushats make preparations for rearing their young. Their 

 courtship is conducted much in the same manner as that of the Domestic Pigeon, the 

 male strutting with elevated head, protruded breast, and quick step, round the female, 

 or, if on a branch, performing various movements and often turning round, as he 

 utters his murmuring love-notes. At times he rises in the air, produces a smart 

 noise by striking the points of his wings against each other, descends, rises again, and 

 thus continues to gambol in the presence of his mate. The cooing of this species may 

 be imitated by pronouncing the syllables coo-roo-coo-coo, the two last protracted. It 

 is softer, deeper, and more plaintive than that of the Rock- Dove. 



The nests are placed on a branch, or in the fork of an oak, beech, fir, or other suit- 

 able tree, more especially a fir or pine ; and in the latter case, often only a few feet 

 from the ground. Sometimes a nest may be seen in a holly or hawthorn bush, or in 

 a hedge, but in general a thick wood is preferred. It is composed of twigs loosely 

 put together, in a circular form, flat above, and varying in thickness from two to four 

 inches. The eggs are always two, of a regular oval or sometimes elliptical form, pure 

 white, an inch and seven-twelfths in length. It appears that two or even three broods 

 are reared in the year. 



The young are at first rather scantily covered with a yellowish down, and when 

 fledged are of the same colour as the adult, but duller and tinged with brown, the 

 white spots on the neck and the changing tints of that part being awanting. The 

 colours are perfected at the first moult, the only change that they afterwards undergo 

 being to a somewhat deeper and purer tint. 



The domestication of this species has often been attempted, but almost always with- 

 out success ; for although individuals become perfectly tame in confinement, they em- 

 brace the first opportunity of regaining their freedom. An instance, however,has recent- 

 ly occurred of its breeding in captivity, as appears from the following statement made by 

 Mr Allis of York, in the Naturalist of last month. " I have this year succeeded in 

 breeding the Ring Pigeon in confinement. I took the old birds from the nest in the 

 autumn of last year. This year they bred a pair of young, which have now passed 

 through the first moult, and are not distinguished from the old birds." 



The Ringed Dove is generally distributed over Europe, but is more abundant in the 

 southern parts. 



On the Geographical Distribution of Animals, with an Account of the Species that 

 inhabit the South of Devon. By J. C. Bellamy. Yealmpton. 



Great exertions have been made, in every department of science, to determine 

 principles and ascertain laws. The successful prosecution of this subject must de- 

 pend, in a great measure, upon acquaintance with detail; and since this species of 

 knowledge has recently received great accessions, philosophers have been guided by a 

 reasonable hope, that a renewed inquiry after principles would be attended with pro- 

 portionately important results. It is to be feared, however, that the difficulties of 

 the investigation have been very often insuperable, and have hitherto prevented us 

 from acquiring an-y satisfactory knowledge, particularly as concerns the geographical 

 distribution of animals. Indeed, as to primary or first causes, the reasons of the in- 

 stitution of laws, or the occurrence of facts in connexion with this interesting sub- 

 lect, we know absolutely nothing. It has been customary, until very lately, to con- 

 found together primary or general laws, and secondary or partial laws. By primary 

 laws, I understand those ordinances constituting the plan, system, or method, ac- 

 cording to which the whole animal kingdom is arranged or distributed over the surface 

 of the globe ; it being opposed to reason, and at variance with all scientific consider- 

 ations, to suppose that living beings have been placed on the earth promiscuously, 

 indiscriminately, and without regard of order and adaptation. 



Since the greatest benefits and most important uses of natural science depend 

 upon the determination of principles and of general conclusions, the labour bestowed 

 on the study should centre on this great object ; and in the enumeration of facts, 

 we should be careful to inquire, as we pruceed, what eff^ect that detail has on admit- 

 ted doctrines, or what influence it might have in estabhshing or disclosing new views 

 and theories. In accordance with this idea, I shall combine a recognition of laws 

 with a statement of facts in the present paper ; first mentioning the primary and 

 secondary laws by which the distribution of animals is governed ; and then entering 

 upon the detail of zoological geography, as observed in the south of Devon ; availing 

 myself, in this second part of the subject, of every occasion to advance the knowledge 

 of the higher department of principles and general results. It will be needful to re- 

 member, that this subject of the Geography of Animals is intimately associated with 

 several others of great interest, and more particularly with migration and the " polity 

 of nature ;" and that these have, equally with the present question, laws, and general 

 considerations connected with them, which are by no means to be confounded with 

 those we are now about to state. 



On inquiring how far the dispersion of animals is affected by, or connected with, 

 the relative temperature of the earth, according to distance from the extreme points 

 of heat and cold, we find that the animal creation is greatly accumulated within the 

 tropics, and that it gradually diminishes in extent as we recede toward the poles. 

 Throughout these vast spaces, however, numberless exceptions and deviations from 

 this general ordination occur, in consequence of the influence of secondary or partial 

 laws, as will be shown in the sequel ; but the fact of the tropical countries being the 

 great seat of animal creation, the temperate regions possessing fewer, and the polar 

 districts the least number, is incontrovertible. 



But not only do the intertropical regions contain the largest proportion of animals, 

 both as regards species, and as regards the number of individuals, but they are cha- 

 racterized also by giving place to the most highly organized creatures of the whole 

 series ; while the temperate climates, and polar regions, are respectively characterized 

 by animals having less and less of this endowment. Corresponding latitudes will 

 therefore be found to agree in their animal productions, in so far as they will present 

 to view creatures possessing similar degrees of organic endowment. These state- 



ments, however, although defensible in a general way, are greatly qualified by second- 

 ary influences, as will subsequently appear. 



The laws which we have here stated will receive elucidation by reference to the 

 Fauna of continental mountains, where, on a small but similar scale, as regards tem- 

 perature, we see the progressive advancement of nuralDers, and of organization, from 

 the summit to the base, though the occurrence of highly and of lowly organized be- 

 ino^s in both extremes forms a partial impediment to the principle. It would almost 

 appear that we had arrived at the knowledge of one of the primary causes of natural 

 phenomena, in finding such definite results in connexion with heat and cold; but 

 there are too many and too palpable exceptions to this rule to allow of such a conclu- 

 sion. If animals were governed, in their dispersion, by heat and cold, except in a 

 secondary and partial way, quadrupeds and birds, belonging to the same tribes as are 

 found within the tropics, would not be present in polar or alpine situations. 



There is no portion of our globe, even the most desolate, which is not at times 

 visited by certain of the higher animals, and also permanently inhabited by certain 

 kinds of insects and inferior creatures. It thus appears, that, besides the lower or- 

 ders of animals being more numerous than the higher classes, they are likewise more 

 generally dispersed. The resources of the lowest tribes are, in all probability, so 

 obscure and occult as to be not only unknown, but even inconceivable to our minds ; 

 on the other hand, wherever vegetation attains to any tolerable degree of perfection 

 in its various forms, there a whole series of animal productions presents itself. If ' 

 the extent of the Flora and Fauna of any given country be examined into, the above 

 result will infallibly be arrived at. 



One primary law on which the distribution of animals depends, having a pretty 

 general influence, and which seems indeed altogether in unison with the aggregate of 

 our zoological knowledge, is the gradual failure in number of individuals of a given 

 species as we recede from the point %vhich, from their comparative plenty there, we 

 presume to be their principal seat. Together with this numerical failure, we see like- 

 wise, as might easily be conceived, a failure, or deterioration in size, in qualities, in 

 colour, and in all other endowments. To so great an extent is this occasionally car- 

 ried, that naturalists are frequently at variance in their decisions on the species, some 

 considering such specimens as deteriorations, others viewing them as separate species, 

 or at least as formal varieties. It is seen that, independently of distance from the seat 

 of luxuriant growth, and great numerical increase, specimens havinsj all the appearance 

 of such as are found at the very verge of the geographical range of a species, are con- 

 stantly detected within short distances of, or absolutely in the metropolis itself. There 

 are unquestionably two sets of causes in operative influence on animals in regard to 

 distribution, and it is of great moment to refer the phenomena connected there- 

 with to the right sources. The primary causes are quite unknown to us, and are 

 likely to continue so, though it would appear that the various parts of the organized 

 creation being ordained to counterbalance each other ; that, as the laws of dependence 

 pervade the world of living beings in all its parts, any determination or regulation, such 

 as the one mentioned, namely, the diminution of numbers and deterioration in size 

 and qualities of individuals, provided it were general, and observed in all classes and 

 species, need not excite surprise. 



The secondary causes appear to be temperature, food, situation, and the hostility 

 of other species. The influence of these appears to be very considerable, and though 

 we cannot be altogether warranted in attributing the above-named circumstance of 

 diminution of number and deterioration in size, &c. to these causes, however plausible 

 it might seem to do so, they are undoubtedly the agents that cause deteriorations 

 generally. These secondary causes become indeed of the greatest moment in investi- 

 gating the zoology of a given district. Primary laws can be seen and estimated only 

 by reference to zoology as a whole, by taking into our view the phenomena exhibited 

 by the entire series of animals ; secondary causes must be appreciated by examining 

 the phenomena of animal geography on smaller scales. It is then we see temperature, 

 food, situation, and other circumstances, operating to the production of certain mo- 

 difications in the dislribution of animals, within a comparatively small compass, while 

 the primary laws influencing their situation on the earth are uninterrupted, and, as it 

 were, overrule the others. In confirmation of the supposition that the gradual lessen-^ 

 ing of numbers, and gradual deterioration in size and other qualities of individuals of 

 a species, as we recede from their metropolis, depend on a primary law, we see the 

 same rule applied to entire tribes and classes of animals in numerous instances. If 

 secondary causes, such as food or climate, determined the limits of species, it would 

 not be found that the verge of the range of one species was the principal seat of 

 another possessing similar endowments and organization, and feeding for the most part 

 similarly. The reasons or causes then of this peculiar law, or ordinance of Nature, 

 are hidden from us. The great seat of the feline tribe is in the tropical regions, and 

 we see the species there found gradually diminishing in number of individuals as we 

 advance northward. We see also that the individuals situated at the outskirts of this 

 great metropolis of rapacious creatures, are diminished in their size and bodily vigour, 

 and that their ferocity has suffered decrease. The place of this tropical series is now 

 supplied by a new set, and a third still more northwardly may without exaggeration 

 or difficulty be detected, each undergoing within its own limits the same gradual di- 

 minution and deterioration. Eventually, if we compare the contents of the two opposite 

 points with regard to this genus, the difference becomes remarkable : we find the species 

 few, the individuals also few, their size small, and their vigour and ferocity greatly re- 

 duced at their northern limit, while at the point where we commenced these features 

 are totally reversed. The principal seat of the cetaceous animals is in the arctic and ant- 

 arctic seas, different species occurring at these two extremes ; they gradually diminish 

 in number as we enter the temperate regions ; and are at their minimum in the equa- 

 torial seas. The Turtle and Tortoises are chiefly inhabitants of the warm latitudes ; 

 yet they extend sparingly northwards, and even in England a few stray individuals 

 have been captured, the Hawk's-bill Turtle in the Severn, in Orkney, and in Zetland, 

 and the Leathern Tortoise in Cornwall. Peron says, *' the seat of the Phasianelle 

 is at IMaria Island ; all traces of them are lost at King George's Sound, after passing 

 through insensible gradations." The Corals and other zoophytes, so plentiful and 

 luxuriant in tropical seas, are replaced in temperate climes by (for the most part) a 

 new series of less size and less luxuriant aspect ; yet the tropical genera and species 



