than its land animals. This is especially the case in regard to
the family of aquatic birds--always most numerous in the higher
latitudes. More than thirty species of the duck tribe alone belong
to Northern Europe, some of them being common to the corresponding
latitudes of Asia and the New World. The stork and the crane (both of
migratory habits) belong to the maritime regions of Western Europe;
the pelican, the spoonbill, and the scarlet flamingo, to the shores
of the Mediterranean.
Europe has fewer species (as well as fewer individuals) of the
reptile kind than either of the other divisions of the globe--a
happy exemption, which is due to its temperate climate. The only
venomous serpents found in Europe are three species of viper, all of
them confined to its southern shores: the common viper of middle and
Northern Europe is innocuous. Lizards are common in the south, as
many as sixty-three species being enumerated.
The waters of Europe exhibit a rich variety of fish, a vast number
of them useful as to the food of man. Each of its inland seas has
its own peculiar tribes, the Mediterranean basin displaying the
richest diversity. Among the inhabitants of the Mediterranean are
several sharks, swordfish, dolphins, and six species of tunny--the
last-mentioned the largest of edible fish. The anchovy is peculiar
to the Mediterranean. The seas that lie around the British Islands
abound in the gregarious tribes of edible fish, as the cod, turbot,
mackerel, herring, pilchard, and many others. The stromming of the
Baltic is of like utility. The salmon frequents the estuaries and
river-mouths throughout the coast-line of Western Europe to the
northward of the Bay of Biscay, becoming more numerous as higher
latitudes are reached.
The generally temperate climate of Europe secures it, for the most
part, an exemption from the dense swarms of insect-life that belong
to warmer latitudes. Yet between eight or nine thousand species
are enumerated as native to the British Islands alone. The common
honey-bee is distributed all over southern and Central Europe, and
is probably indigenous. The locust is only an occasional visitor to
its shores, and belongs to the other side of the Mediterranean. The
silkworm was introduced from China toward the close of the Fifth
Century of our era.
Asia is rich in variety of animal life, and especially so as regards
the class mammalia, all the orders of which but two (the marsupials
and the edentata) are represented in its zoology. Of domesticated
quadrupeds, the camel, ox, goat, and sheep, among the ruminants, with
the horse, the ass, and the elephant, among pachyderms, are natives
of Asia. The camel, of which there are several species, all natives
of this continent, ranges from the shores of the Indian Ocean and Red
Sea as far north as Lake Baikal. The reindeer and elk frequent the
Siberian and Mongolian plains, migrating from the former locality
southward with the approach of winter. Numerous varieties of the
ox tribe (including the common ox, aurochs, buffalo, and yak) are
reared by the Tartar nations who inhabit the upland plains of the
interior. The antelope and deer tribe, of which there are a vast
number of species, belong to the western and southwestern regions
of the continent. The plains of Turkestan, to the eastward of the
Caspian, are perhaps the original country of the horse. The wild ass
is indigenous to Western Asia. The elephant is not found to the west
of India, nor to the north of the Himalaya Mountains; it belongs only
to the two Indian peninsulas, with Ceylon, and some of the smaller
islands of the Malay archipelago.
Among Asiatic carnivora are the lion, tiger, leopard, panther, and
ounce, of the cat genus: the wolf, hyena, and jackal, of the dog
tribe. Two species of bear are native to the Himalaya region (the
snow-bear, and the black-bear) and the polar bear belongs to the
Arctic coasts of the continent. The lion of Asia is now restricted to
the region which extends from the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris
to the western coasts of the Indian peninsula, including the deserts
of Mesopotamia, Persia, and Hindostan. The tiger has a more extensive
range, and inhabits all the middle and southeastern divisions of the
continent. The hyena, and also the jackal, belong to the western half
of Southern Asia; the wolf frequents the northern and western plains,
and is found in a range of country extending from Siberia, through
Turkestan, to the shores of the Mediterranean. The dog and the fox
are common all over the continent, and present numerous varieties; in
Kamtchatka and some parts of Siberia, the former animal is used as a
beast of burden, and is trained to draw the sledges over the vast
plains of ice and snow.
Numerous fur-bearing animals occur in Siberia, including the bear,
glutton, badger, wolf, fox, lynx, pole-cat, weasel, ermine, marten,
otter, sable, squirrel, beaver, hare, and the reindeer: many of these
belong also to the northern regions of Europe. The quadrumana are
found in the south and southeast of the continent and the islands
of the Malay archipelago; the largest and most remarkable among
them--the orang-outang--is restricted to the Malayan peninsula and
the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The gibbons (or long-armed apes)
belong exclusively to Asia, and abound in its southeastern parts.
Bats are more numerous in the islands of the Asiatic archipelago than
on the continent.
Asia is less rich in variety of birds than in quadrupeds, but (with
the exception of the turkey, which is a native of the New World,
and of the guinea-fowl, which is African) all our domestic poultry
came originally from this division of the globe. Among its birds of
prey are eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, and hawks; but although
individually abundant, the species of these are not numerous.
Song-birds are numerous in western Asia, but are comparatively scarce
in the eastern division of the continent, where, however (especially
among the islands of the Malay archipelago and in China), birds of
beautiful plumage abound. The peacock is a native of India, the
golden pheasants belong to China, and the birds of paradise to New
Guinea and the adjacent islands.
Reptiles are less numerous in Asia than in some other parts of the
globe, but are sufficiently common in the southeastern parts of the
continent and the adjacent islands. The python (analogous to the
boa-constrictor of the New World) lurks in the morasses and swamps
of the East Indian islands; the cobras, with several other kinds of
venomous serpents, are found in the peninsulas of Eastern and Western
India. Both sea and fresh-water snakes are numerous. Among insects,
the locust is abundant in Western Asia, and commits the most dreadful
ravages among the crops in Syria, Persia, and Arabia.
Africa is yet richer than Asia in regard to the animal kingdom.
Of the total number of mammalia, more than a fourth occur in this
division of the Old World, and fewer than a sixth of the number
are common to Africa with either of the other continents. It is in
the carnivora, ruminants, pachyderms, and quadrumana, that African
zoology is more especially rich. Only one order, the marsupial, is
unrepresented in it. Nor is the varied abundance of animal life in
this region of the globe confined to species; the development of
individual life within its vast and almost boundless solitudes is yet
more characteristic.
Among African beasts of prey are the lion, panther, leopard, wolf,
fox, hyena, and jackal. Three varieties of the lion occur--that of
Northern Africa, of the countries on the Senegal, and of the extreme
south, toward the Orange River. There are two hyenas--one, the
spotted hyena, a native of Southern Africa; the other, the striped
hyena, indigenous to the more northerly parts of the continent, and
extending its range from Abyssinia and Barbary into Western Asia. The
wolf and the jackal belong to Northern Africa.
Of ruminants, there are no less than sixty species of the antelope
kind, which is especially abundant in Southern Africa. The camelopard
or giraffe is peculiar to this continent, and ranges from the banks
of the Gariep to the southern borders of the Sahara, but is not found
upon the western coasts. Several species of buffalo occur in a wild
state, and are most abundant within the outlying districts of the
Cape Colony. Sheep and goats abound in most parts of Africa, but are
probably not indigenous; both in Barbary and near the Cape of Good
Hope--at the opposite extremities of the continent--are found sheep
with broad, fat tails, so large as sometimes to weigh from ten to
thirty pounds. The camel of Africa is found all over its northern and
central regions.
Of the Pachydermata, or thick-skinned animals, the most
characteristic are the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. The
elephant is found dispersed, in immense herds of from one to three
hundred, all over the wooded regions of Central and Southern Africa,
and the rhinoceros frequents principally the same localities. The
ivory supplied by the tusks of the former is one of the most valuable
native products of this quarter of the globe. The rhinoceros is
valued chiefly for its hide, which is made into shields and harness.
The hippopotamus is found in the upper part of the Nile valley,
and in all the lakes and rivers to the southward of the Great
Desert--including the Senegal, the Gambia, the Congo, and the Gariep.
This animal is peculiar to Africa; its teeth consist of the finest
ivory, for the sake of which it is hunted by the settlers of the
Cape. All three of these animals are used as food by the native races
of the South African interior.
The wild boar is found in some parts of Africa: the zebra, dow, and
quagga (all peculiar to this continent) abound in its central and
southern regions, particularly in the arid plains in the neighborhood
of the Orange River. Of the African Quadrumana, monkeys, baboons,
apes, and lemurs abound in the forests throughout every part of the
continent.
The chimpanzee of the western coasts (from the neighborhood of Sierra
Leone to the 10th parallel of S. latitude) makes nearer approach to
the human form than the orang-outang of Southeastern Asia, but is
surpassed in this respect by the gorilla, one of the largest of the
ape tribe, which inhabits the forests in the neighborhood of the
Gaboon River (0° 30′ N. lat.).
Bats are numerous in Africa, and most of the species inhabiting this
continent are peculiar to it. The Rodentia are also for the most
part of peculiar species; among them are hares, rabbits, jerboas,
squirrels, rats, and mice.
Among birds, the ostrich is confined to Africa, but ranges from its
southern extremity to the northern borders of the Great Desert. Its
feathers form a highly valued article of traffic, and the bird is
domesticated in many parts of Africa for the sake of procuring these
free from injury. The vulture (of which two species occur--one in
Northern Africa and the other in the neighborhood of the Cape) serves
here, as elsewhere, to preserve the air from impurity, by feeding
on the carcasses of animals, and divides with the hyena the office
of scavenger. The owl, falcon, and eagle are also enumerated among
the African birds of prey. Of gallinaceous birds Africa possesses
only the guinea-fowl; but the domestic poultry are numerously
reared, though not indigenous. The woods of tropical Africa abound
in numberless varieties of parrots and paroquets, besides many
other birds of bright and gaudy plumage--as the beautiful sun-birds
(which inhabit the western coasts, and are scarcely larger than the
humming-birds of America), together with the golden-colored orioles,
crested hoopoes, bee-eaters, and others. The honey-suckers, which
abound in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope, feed entirely
upon the nectar or saccharine juice of the proteas and similar
plants. The sun-birds also occur in Southern Africa, and rival those
of India and the Gambia in the brilliancy of their colors.
Lizards, serpents, and reptiles of every description abound in
various parts of the African continent, though its general aridity,
throughout extensive regions, is less favorable to the development of
reptile life than in the case of correspondent latitudes elsewhere.
The crocodile inhabits all the large rivers of tropical Africa,
and is abundant in the lower portion of the Nile. The huge python,
sometimes twenty-two feet in length (though inferior in size to
the boa of the New World), is found in the swamps and morasses of
the western coast, and some species of the cobra (or hooded snake)
occur--chiefly in Southern Africa and on the shores of Guinea.
Insects abound, both in species and as individuals; among them is
the locust, which at intervals ravages all the northern parts of
the continent. But the termites, or white ants, of Western Africa
are the most celebrated members of the insect family, and effect
the most extraordinary destruction of furniture, books, clothes,
food, and everything that comes in their way. They build pyramidal
or conical nests, firmly cemented together, and divided into several
apartments--so large that at first sight they appear in the distance
like the villages of the natives. Both the bee and the wasp are
numerously distributed, but the bee has not been domesticated by any
of the native people of this continent; it is, however, reared by the
Arabs in Northern Africa.
The New World exhibits, through its vast prolongation in the
direction of latitude, a development of animal life which is almost
infinitely varied, and which differs in many essential regards from
that belonging to either of the continents of the Eastern Hemisphere.
Each of the nine orders of Mammalia is represented within its limits,
but many of the most attractive and valuable members of the animal
life of Asia and Africa are nevertheless wanting. America has neither
the elephant nor the camel; and neither the horse, the ox, the sheep,
nor the hog is indigenous to it.
The Carnivora of the New World are inferior in size, strength, and
ferocity to those of Asia and Africa. In place of the lion, America
has only the puma--a smaller and less powerful creature. The tiger
of Southern Asia is represented by the jaguar, a somewhat smaller
animal, but the most powerful of the American carnivora. In North
America, however, the numerous bears are distinguished by their
size and power, particularly the grizzly bear of the countries
which border upon the Rocky Mountains. The great white bear of the
polar regions is common to the high latitudes of either hemisphere.
North America, which is more strictly continental in extent than
the southern half of the New World, possesses, indeed, other types
of animal life which rival those of the Eastern Hemisphere. Among
these are the majestic bison, or American buffalo, together with
the elk or moose-deer, occupying a place similar to the reindeer of
Northern Europe and Asia. Several varieties of the deer-kind occur in
the northern half of the continent, together with the musk-ox, the
big-horned sheep, and the Rocky Mountain goat, which are peculiar to
this region.
The tapir and the peccary (an animal of the hog kind) range all over
the plains of South America, and the former is also found on the
coast of Central America. The puma (or cougar) occurs on the Mexican
Isthmus, and even as far northward as the 45th parallel, though found
most numerously in the southern half of the continent, where its
range extends to within a few degrees of the Strait of Magellan. The
jaguar is found in the coast regions of the Mexican Isthmus, as well
as the forests of Brazil and the adjoining regions of South America.
The lynx and the wolf belong to the colder tracts of North America.
The opossums are numerous in South America, and one species is met
with in the United States (Virginia); this family (Marsupialia) is
altogether absent from the eastern continent, but is fully developed
in the Australian division of the globe. The beaver abounds in the
colder latitudes of North America, together with a vast number
of other fur-bearing animals; as raccoons, martens, squirrels,
sea-otters, minks, muskrats, ermines, foxes, wolverines, and hares.
The llama tribe (comprehending, besides the llama, the alpaca,
vicuna, and others), is peculiar to South America. Its members are
found throughout the prolonged cordilleras of the western side
of that continent, from Chili to New Granada, dwelling always at
considerable heights above the level of the sea. The llama belongs
to the same order (Ruminantia) as the camel of the Old World, and
supplies some of the uses of that animal as a beast of burden. Prior
to the Spanish conquest, the llama was, indeed, the only beast of
burden which the natives of South America possessed. The tapir of the
same continent (an animal about the size of a small cow, and readily
distinguished by the downward bend of its snout) belongs to the
order of pachyderms. Two species of tapir, both of them peculiar to
that region, inhabit South America: a third species is native to the
island of Sumatra, and the adjacent Malay peninsula, in Southeastern
Asia.
The paca and cutia (or agouti) both of a family which is peculiar
to South America, take the place of the hare and rabbit of the Old
World, and belong, like those animals, to the order of rodents. Both
are used as food. The capybara and the common guinea-pig belong
to the same order. The chinchilla, another of the South American
rodents, valued for its delicate fur, is confined to the southern
portions of the Andes.
The sloth, ant-eater, and armadillo (all belonging to the order of
Edentata), are natives of South America.
Monkeys are exceedingly numerous all over that continent, especially
in the forests of Brazil. These, however, are different in species
from the monkeys of the Eastern Hemisphere; they are of smaller size,
and (with the exception of one nearly tailless species, found within
the forests of the Upper Amazons, within a very limited area) all
possess tails, mostly prehensile. None of the apes of the New World
makes the same approach to the human form which is found either
in the chimpanzee and gorilla of Western Africa or the orang of
Southeastern Asia. Toward the close of the day the howling monkeys
of Brazil make the woods resound with the most frightful cries; but
they are neither of large size nor of formidable powers. The family
of lemurs, so abundant in the eastern half of the globe, has not
a single representative in the New World. The marmosets, a family
confined to America, are numerous within the regions of the lower
Amazons.
Bats are very numerous in South America--more so than in any other
part of the world: among them is the large vampire-bat, to which
popular rumor has assigned the most bloodthirsty propensities, though
it is in reality perfectly harmless, feeding chiefly upon fruits,
with a few insects. All the American bats differ in species from
those of the eastern continent.
The ornithology of tropical America exceeds in splendor that of any
other region of the globe. Among the principal birds of prey are
several species of eagle, including the large white-headed eagle
of the United States, with vultures, hawks, kites, and owls. South
America, however, possesses the largest of the vulture tribe--the
gigantic condor of the Andes, which is confined to the higher peaks
of those mountains, bordering on the limits of the snowy region.
This is one of the most powerful and rapacious of birds, and commits
numerous ravages among the cattle, deer, and other animals. The
American ostrich, or emu, which dwells in the pampas of that region,
is also distinguished by its size. The turkey is American, and is the
only one of the domestic poultry that has been derived from the New
World.[9] The toucans, distinguished by their enormous bills, are
peculiar to America.
The humming-birds are peculiar to the western continent, and in the
tropical regions of America various birds of the most glittering
plumage, together with numberless fire-flies, lend an almost magical
charm to the aspect of nature. The range of the humming-birds extends
over the whole continent to the southward of the 42d parallel (north
lat.) and stretches upon the western side of North America as high
as the parallel of 60°--an evidence of the superior warmth which
distinguishes that side of the American continent.
Both reptiles and insects are abundant in the New World, which, owing
to its excessive moisture and dense vegetation, is peculiarly suited
to the development of these departments of the natural kingdom.
Venomous serpents are more numerous in tropical America than in any
other part of the globe. The rattlesnake occurs in both divisions
of the continent, within the parallels of 44° to the northward
and of 30° to the south of the equator; the huge boa-constrictor,
the largest of the serpent tribe, and the terror even of the
natives, dwells in the marshes and swamps of South America. Huge
caymans, iguanas, and other lizards, with numberless alligators and
water-snakes, abound in the rivers and temporary lagoons of the same
region.
Australia possesses a zoology which is more distinctive than that of
any other part of the world. Its native insects, reptiles, birds,
and land animals are all strikingly different from those of other
regions. The difference is greatest (or, at any rate, most obvious to
ordinary observation) in the case of its land animals. Two-thirds
of the Australian Mammalia belong to the marsupial order, and the
kangaroo, the largest member of that family, surpasses in size any
other of its indigenous quadrupeds. The Quadrumana, pachyderms, and
ruminants are altogether unrepresented, nor are there any of the
larger carnivora, the native dog (already verging on extinction)
being the chief among them. In the present day large numbers of the
Australian population are employed in rearing the domestic cattle of
Europe.
Australia forms in all regards a distinct zoological province, and
its insulated position has tended, in greater measure than is the
case with any other part of the world, to confine the distinguishing
features of its fauna within its own proper limits. The kangaroo
family includes numerous distinct species, from the full-sized
kangaroo down to the kangaroo-rat. But not a single one of the tribe
is found beyond the limits of Australia and the neighboring island
of Tasmania. The opossums, which belong to the same order, are only
found elsewhere in the New World. The most remarkable, however, among
the members of the Australian animal world is that popularly known
as the duck-bill (platypus, or ornithorynchus), which constitutes
a puzzle to the naturalist. This is a semi-aquatic creature, about
twelve or thirteen inches in length, with the body of an otter, a
bill like that of the duck, and which lays eggs. As one of the tribe
of Mammalia (to which, by its habits, it belongs), the platypus must
be classed under the head of Edentata; while, on the other hand,
as being oviparous, it may be regarded as belonging to a totally
distinct division of the animal world. The platypus frequents the
margins of creeks and pools, but remains mostly in the water, and
is only approached with difficulty, on account of its extreme
shyness. It has a coating of soft fur, variously shaded from black to
silver-gray.