CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS. 
209 
in this part of the world may be explained by the 
way in which it is sub-divided into several hundred 
insulated tracks. As this portion of our earth seems 
to be at the present moment in a state of development, 
birds are found here with forms not yet complete; 
but where the vegetable kingdom has reached the 
highest stage of development, there the birds also 
possess the glowing colours peculiar to the South. If 
the Southern Archipelago were as well known and 
explored as Europe is, we should undoubtedly find the 
hypothesis confirmed here, that every bird harmonises 
and is in unison with its home, and that it cannot be 
otherwise. 
Every part of the earth and each zone has birds pecu¬ 
liar to itself. The North has strength, freshness, grace, 
and song; the South, strangeness of form and brilliancy 
of colour; the East possesses a severe style of beauty; 
the West, simplicity and elegance; the high mountain 
ranges and the sea are the homes of mighty flyers; the 
plains and the poles are the domain of running and 
fishing birds; diversity is characteristic of the forest; 
uniformity, of the tree-less expanse. Wherever we look, 
we cannot but recognize and admire the infinite harmony 
of Nature. 
