240 
OK THE aEOaKAPHICAL 
America, produce several very curious animals, among 
whicli we may mention the Antilope furcifer and Ant. mon- 
tana. As to reptiles, this vast peninsula affords a very 
great number of aquatic Tortoises, of the genera Emys and 
Trionyx ; but, except in the southern parts, there are no 
terrestrial Tortoises, or rather the animal which represents 
them, is the Emys clausa, a species intermediate between ter- 
restrial and aquatic tortoises. Saurian reptiles occur there 
in very small number, in comparison to what we observe 
in South America, and there are none of the species inha- 
biting trees. The Batrachians, on the contrary, are there 
very common ; and there we find a great quantity of Sala- 
manders,^ and those singular Batrachians, which one would 
take for the larvae of Salamanders, or for incomplete animals, 
and which may be compared to our European Proteus ; but 
the Bombintors (Bana Braziliensis, Gmel.) have never yet 
been observed in North America. In comparing together 
the species of reptiles, or more especially the serpents of 
the two peninsulae forming the new continent, we are able 
to establish very interesting parallels ; the common Frog 
of North America, Bana mugiens, for example, is repre- 
sented, in South America, by an analogous species, Bana 
pachypus, of the same size, but with the toes entirely free. 
The Toad of the United States, Bufo musicus, which also 
inhabits several of the Antilles, is not found in South Ame- 
rica, where it is replaced by the Bufo aqua. The Crotalus 
horridus, common in all South America, is represented, in 
North America, by the Crotalus durissus ; the Coronella 
venustissima is there represented by the Cor. coccinea, the 
Emys scorpioides by the Emys odorata, &c. The compa- 
rison, however, which we have made between the reptiles 
of the two Americas only applies to a small number of 
species, and it often happens that one of the two peninsulas 
produce species, or even genera, of which no representative 
exists in the other. f The Tortrix, the Dipsas, the Den- 
^ The Salamanders peculiar to the temperate regions of the northern 
hemisphere, and the Csecilia, a native of tropical regions, would appear 
to replace each other in these two zones. 
t The Ophisaurus, which there represents our [Pseudopus, and of 
