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Show 48 ISLAND LIFE. [PAU'l' I, quite so conspicuous but nevertheless very import~nt. We have first, three peculiar genera of moles, one of whiCh, the starnosed mole, is a most extraordinary creature, quite unlike anything else. Then there are three genera of the weasel family, including the well-known skunk (Mephitis), all quite different from Eastern forms. Then we come to a peculiar family of carnivora, the racoons, very distinct from anything in Europe or Asia; and in the Rocky Mountains we find tho prong-horn antelope (Antilocapra) and the mountain goat of the trappers (Aplocerus), both peculiar genera. Coming to the rodents we find that the mice of America differ in some dental peculiarities from those of the rest of the world, and thus form several distinct genera; the jumping mouse (Xapus) is a peculiar form of the jerboa family, and then we come to the pouched rats (!J;eomyidre) a very curious family consisting of four genera and nineteen species, peculiar to North America, though not confined to the N earctic region. The prairie dogs (Cynornys), the tree porcupine (Erethizon), the cur.ious sewellel (Haploodon), and the opossum (Didelphys) complete the list of peculiar mammalia which distinguish the northern region of the new world from that of the old. We must add to these peculiarities some remarkable deficiencies. The N earctic region has no hedgehogs, nor wild pigs, nor dormice, and only one wild sheep in the Rocky ~[ountains as against twenty species of sheep and goats in the Palrearctic region. In birds also the similarities to our own familiar songster~ first strike us, though the differences are perhaps really greater than in the quadrupeds. We see thrushes and wrens, tits and finches, and what seem to be warblers and flycatchers and starlings in abundance; but a closer examination shows the ornithologist that what he took for the latter are really qnite distinct, and that there is not a single true flycatcher of the family Muscicapidre, or a single starling of the family Sturnidre ia the whole continent, while there are very few true warblers (SyJviidre), their place being taken by the very distinct families Mniotiltidre or wood-warblers, and Vireonidre or greenlets. In like n1anner the flycatchers of America belong to the totally distinct family of tyrant-birds, Tyrannidre, and those that look CHAr. Ill.) ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS. 40 like starlings to th h peculiar families e . aug-nests, Ir.teridc:e ; and these four give a special chcaompnse more than a hundred species and racter t th . ' Add to these such 1' o e ormthology of the countn~ (M . pecu rar birds th J • Irnus), the blue jays (C . as e mocking thrushes genera of cuckoos (Co yanoCitta), the tanagers, the peculiar b.I r d s, the wild turkeycsc y(Mgu s and Croto h ) l 1 . P aga , t 1e humminO'- (Cathartes), and we see th:t e~fg~~), a~d the turkey-buzzards mammals of North Ameri'ca b . erffie ~s any doubt as to the e1n0' su Cie tl d · · the creation of a separate re i~n th n .Y Istmct to justify would alone settle the question~ ' e evidence of the birds The reptiles, and some others of the 1 . more to this weiO'ht of . d ower ammals, add still h . ll o evi ence. The true rattle-snakes are Ig l y characteristic, and amonO' th ]' d gene f th 0 e Izar s are several ra .o e peculiar American family the IO'uanidre N where m the. wor~d are the tailed batrachi;ns so iarO'er developed as Ill thiS region th g· d 0 y f, . ' e Irens an the Amphium. d ormmg two peculiar families, w bile there are nine ec ~. c.e genera of salamanders, and two others allied res ecti;el u Iar the Proteus of Europe and the Sieb ld' . p y to of Japan Th o la or giant salamander . ere are about twent . r fresh-water fishes . while th f hy-mne pecu lar genera of . ' e res -water molluscs are m num.erous than.In. any other region, more than thirteen hund~:~ specJes ~n~ vaneties ha.ving been described. ?o~bmmg the evidence derived from all these classes of a}mma s, .we find the N earctic region to be exceedinaly well c 1aractensed, and to be ampl d · t · t f 0 Th £ . y IS me rom the Pahea. rctic e. ew species that are common to the two are almost ali arctw, or~ at least, northern types, and may be compared with those desert forms which occupy the debatable ground b t the Palrearctic, Ethiopian, and· Oriental regions. If, ho::::; we co~pare the nu~ber of species which are common to th' N earctw and PaJa:arctic. regions with the n b e to the w t d urn er common es ern an eastern extremities of the 1 tt . we shall find a wonderful difference between th a er regwn~ and if we further call to mind the numb . e two cases; characteristic of the on . er of Important groups shall be obliO' d e. regwn but absent from the other, we oe to admit that the relation that undoubtedly E |
