INTRODUCTION. 
87 
promulgated by several of Ms successors, they were 
framed without any definite reference either to the 
dispersion of the human race, or to the harmonious 
union of their parts. It was with a view, there- 
fore, of attempting to generalize all that was then 
known on the dispersion of animals, that we dis- 
covered they could all be classed under the very 
same geographic limits assigned by Cuvier and 
Blumenbach to the five leading races of man; and 
into which the best geographers of the present day 
have divided the globe. These may consequently 
be considered zoological provinces, corresponding 
to the several divisions of Europe , Asia, Africa, 
America, and Australia. 
In stating, however, the general fact, that each 
of the large divisions of our globe has its own pecu- 
liar animals, the reader must not be led into the 
belief that this law is altogether absolute, or that 
there are not several examples of one and the same 
species inhabiting countries, not only adjoining each 
other, but sometimes laying widely asunder. Ex- 
amples of the latter, however, are much more rare 
than of the former. The animals of one range will 
always be commingled with those of another, on the 
co nfin es of their respective countries : and there 
must consequently be those lands debatable which 
serve to connect two different districts or zoological 
provinces : these may be likened to those softer and 
graduating tints wMch serve to blend the opposite 
colours of the rainbow, and produce that harmony 
which pervades every part of creation. Some animals 
