DISTRIBUTIOK OF OPHIDIANS. 
199 
matters for observation. One of the most curious is, with- 
out doubt, the total absence of serpents in the numerous 
isles of the Pacific Ocean, ^ — a phenomenon the more re- 
markable, that the islands forming the Great Indian 
Archipelago appertain to those regions of the earth most 
abounding in serpents. Another point no less interesting 
to know is, that the serpents, and all the reptiles of the 
New World, constantly belong to species different from 
those of the ancient world, ^ — a proved and very curious 
fact"; because a great many birds, and several mammals, of 
North America, are precisely the same as those of Europe, 
as also of a great part of Asia ; and because several of 
our reptiles are found all over temperate Asia, even in 
Japan, often without presenting the slightest difference. 
South America, in general, produces different species from 
North America, although several of them are perfectly 
identical in those two great regions. Some species of the 
first region also inhabit the Antilles, and are even found 
in the southern countries of the United States, where they 
sometimes form climatal varieties ; other species, common 
in North America, are found in Mexico, and are often met 
with also in the Antilles. America, in general, especially 
in its equatorial regions, is almost as rich in serpents as 
Malayan Asia. It is not thus with New Holland, which 
seems to be inhabited by only a small number of Ophi- 
dians ; forming, perhaps with the exception of some few 
in the northern parts, species peculiar to that vast island. 
The serpents of Japan pertain, without exception, to pe- 
culiar species which have not yet been observed in any 
other spot on the globe. The numerous Isles of the 
Archipelago of Malayan Asia often support species en- 
on the perpendicular distribution, that is to say, with regard to the 
heights at which they are found, I here omit to speak of it. 
^ Lesson {Voyage Zool., ii. 2, p. 9) relates some observations which 
tend to confirm the presence of serpents in the isles of Botouma at 
Oualan ; but these observations want confirmation. The Mariannes, 
however, support several snakes; and Dampier, Voy, i. p. 113, speaks 
of green serpents in the Galapagos Isles. I need not refute the hypo- 
thesis advanced by Q,uoy and Gaimard {Voy. de VJJranie Part. Zoolog, , 
p. Ill), that these animals do not inhabit those isles and similar places, 
because of their volcanic nature. 
t It may be conceived that I except from this number Sea Tortoises. 
