CHAPTER II. 
CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS OF EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AMERICA, 
AND AUSTRALIA. 
“ Wie alles sich zum Ganzen webt, 
Eins in dem Andern wirkt und lebt!” 
Faust (Goethe). 
Whoever travels through the world observant and 
mindful of all that falls under his notice, or the 
individual who carefully compares the descriptions of 
things observed by others, cannot fail to remark that 
there is an internal and harmonious correspondence 
between a country and its products; the soil and climate 
of a certain locality influence the vegetable kingdom, 
and these three combined produce a like effect upon the 
animal kingdom. Such correspondence is more observable 
or striking in the case of some animals than others, and on 
this account Vogel calls them “ the characteristic animals 
of a country,” and truly, as far as I know, he is the first 
person who has acknowledged their value in that relation. 
Each quarter of the globe—indeed almost every 
greater or lesser district of the earth—is possessed of 
characteristic animals; in the sea, no less than on land; 
in forest and field; on mountain and plain. The pecu¬ 
liarities of climate, and of the flora of a country, are 
reflected in its animals; the actual conformation and 
composition even of the earth’s surface is manifested in 
them. It is true that, as yet, the cause of this is unknown 
2 B 
