196 
BIRD-LIFE. 
these the species which she possesses in common with 
other portions of the globe, and one may readily perceive 
the wealth of life in the New World. Beyond dispute, 
America is the quarter of the globe best adapted, accord¬ 
ing to the laws already mentioned, for the distribution 
and change of certain forms. It embraces all the geogra¬ 
phical zones of the earth, except the extreme rigour of the 
South Pole ; and thus it possesses every variety of climate. 
Besides this, it is perfectly isolated, inasmuch as it 
touches the Old World only at its northernmost point, 
while it is surrounded on every other side by the ocean. 
It is, indeed, a narrow island, laved on every side by 
life-giving waters, while its interior is fed by the falling 
vapours which rise from them. America is without those 
desert tracts that occupy so large a portion of Asia and 
Africa,—tracts which, but for the scanty dews of night, 
remain constantly dry from year’s end to year’s end ; 
but is, on the contrary, with rare exceptions, well 
supplied with water. However this may be, wherever 
warmth and moisture combine, we invariably find a 
paradise of brilliancy, and, as a matter of course, the 
animal—or rather the bird—world is in unison with it. On 
this account South America is the true “El Dorado” of 
the naturalist,—the golden land, where Nature has sur¬ 
passed the boldest forms of her conception by the 
creatures she has produced. 
Let us select from this inexhaustible store those 
characteristic birds which are most valuable to us. There 
are too many new animals there to allow of a superficial 
examination. We will, therefore, divide this continent into 
North and South, as Nature and Science combine to do. 
North America reminds us, from time to time, very much 
of Old Europe or Northern Asia; yet she has her own 
