FAUNA OF THE NEOTROPICAL REALM. 79 



vening continent of Africa appears to be almost entirely deficient 

 in the members of this family. The Struthionidse, or ostriches, are 

 similarly divided, the South American continent possessing three 

 (of the genus Rhea) out of the five or six species of which the 

 family is composed. The noble and ignoble birds of prey are both 

 well represented in the Neotropical realm, and it is here that the 

 most powerful and largest bird of flight, the Condor (Sarcorham- 

 phus gryphus), is to be found. True eagles of the sub-family 

 Aquilinse are absent from the greater part of the region, and there 

 are no representatives of the common genera distinctive of the 

 Temperate Zone — Aquila, Haliaetus (the bald eagle), or Chrysaetos 

 (the golden eagle). The harpy eagle (Thrasaetus harpya), more 

 properly a buzzard, penetrates as far north as the Texan frontier. 

 Among the characteristic families of birds which the Neotropical 

 region shares with the western division of the Holarctic are the 

 Tyrannidfe, or tyrant-shrikes, the New "World representatives of 

 the Old World fly-catchers (Muscicapidse), and the Icteridae, or 

 hang-nests, the New World representatives of the Old World 

 starlings (Sturnidae), of which the common Baltimore oriole and 

 the cassique (Cassicus cristatus) are familiar examples. It is a 

 singular fact that the crows and ravens (Corvus), which are 

 otherwise nearly cosmopolitan, and which comprise upwards 

 of fifty species, are completely wanting in the greater part of 

 the Neotropical realm, no species being found south of Guate- 

 mala. 



The Neotropical reptile-fauna is scarcely less well-marked than 

 the mammalian or the avian. It includes the giant boas and ana- 

 condas of the genera Boa, Epicrates, and Eunectes, the coral-snake 

 (Elaps), which has one or two extra-limital representatives in the 

 United States, the venomous crotaloids, with the true rattlesnakes, 

 Lachesis, and Craspedocephalus (jararaca), both alligators (cayman) 

 and crocodiles, and no less than about one hundred and fifty species 

 of the singular lizards constituting the family Iguanidse. The ano- 

 lids and amphisbsenians are represented by numerous species. The 

 tailed amphibians, such as the newts and salamanders, are almost 

 absent, but in their place there is an unusual development of the 

 tailless forms, the toads and frogs (horned-frog, Ceratophrys ; Hemi- 

 phractus), especially of the tree-frogs (Hylidse). — The fresh-water 

 fishes of the Neotropical realm arc specifically more numerous than 



