48 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[PAET I. 



quite so conspicuous but nevertheless very important. We have 

 first, three peculiar genera of moles, one of which, the star- 

 nosed mole, is a most extraordinary creature, quite unlike 

 anything else. Then there are three genera of the weasel 

 family, including the well-known skunk (Mephitis), all quite 

 different from Eastern forms. Then we come to a peculiar 

 family of carnivora, the racoons, very distinct from anything in 

 Europe or Asia ; and in the "Rocky Mountains we find the 

 prong-horn antelope (Antilocapra) and the mountain goat of 

 the trappers (Aplocerus), both peculiar genera. Coming to 

 the rodents we find that the mice of America differ in some 

 dental peculiarities from those of the rest of the world, and 

 thus form several distinct genera ; the jumping mouse (Xapus) 

 is a peculiar form of the jerboa family, and then we come to the 

 pouched rats (Geomyidae) a very curious family consisting of 

 four genera and nineteen species, peculiar to North America, 

 though not confined to the Nearctic region. The prairie dogs 

 (Cynomys), the tree porcupine (Erethizon), the curious sewellel 

 (Haploodon), and the opossum (Didelphys) complete the list of 

 peculiar mammalia which distinguish the northern region of 

 the new world from that of the old. We must add to these 

 peculiarities some remarkable deficiencies. The Nearctic region 

 has no hedgehogs, nor wild pigs, nor dormice, and only one wild 

 sheep in the Rocky Mountains as against twenty species of 

 sheep and goats in the Palsearctic region. 



In birds also the similarities to our own familiar songsters 

 first strike us, though the differences are perhaps really greater 

 than in the quadrupeds. We see thrushes and wrens, tits and 

 finches, and what seem to be warblers and flycatchers and 

 starlings in abundance ; but a closer examination shows the 

 ornithologist that what he took for the latter are really quite 

 distinct, and that there is not a single true flycatcher of the 

 family Muscicapidae, or a single starling of the family Sturnidge 

 in the whole continent, while there are very few true warblers 

 (Sylviidse), their place being taken by the very distinct families 

 Mniotiltidse or wood-warblers, and Yireonidse or greenlets. In 

 like manner the flycatchers of America belong to the totally 

 distinct family of tyrant-birds, Tyrannidse, and those that look 



