FAUNA. In considering this subject, it must be recognized first that we here have to deal with two continental for the animal life of North America is almost completely different from that of South and Central America. This unlikeness seems related in large degree to his tory and derivation. The fauna of North Amer ica is very similar to that of the northern zones of the Old World, in large part identical with it. Among mammals .substantially similar to those of Europe or northern Asia are all the bears, wolves, the lynx. most fur-bearers (Nils , the bison, reindeer, moose ("elk" of Europe), bighorn, white goat, beaver, and the majority of the rodents and small insectivores, bats, etc., where the differences are rarely more than generic. The peculiar North American mammals of note are the puma, the skunk, the pronghorn, the musk-ox, and certain rodents, as the pouched-rats and *ewellel. The absentees are equally interesting. Although they arose in Tertiary North America, no horses, camels, or rhinoceroses are in its recent fauna ; nor any true antelopes or swine (except in the extreme southwest) ; of Marsupials a single form, the opossum, is present. The birds present a similar parallelism with northern Europe and Asia, many species, and nearly all the families, being common to both continents. The same is true of reptiles and amphibians, which are marked in North America by the preponderance of certain subordinate forms, such as the rattle snakes, rather than by anything very different from those of the Old World. Fishes present somewhat greater distinctions, yet the bulk of fresh-water fish are similar to, and some are identical with, those of the colder parts of Europe. insects and fresh-water mollusks seem generally related to those of Europe and Asia ; but the United States is richer than any other part of the world in finviatile mollusks—espe ciall• river mussels ( Union id(r). On the whole, the Nearctic fauna is closely allied to the Pal arctic, and by some students they are united in a single grand division, termed "Holarctic," or "Triarctic." South America, considered with reference to its fauna, includes Central America, the low lands of Mexico, and the West Indies, and forms one of the grand zoogeographical divisions, named "Neotropical" by Sclater. It is charac
terized by richness and isolation, leading to the belief that its union with North America has been accomplished at a comparatively recent date, and that the origin of its animal popula tion is exceedingly remote and was followed by long isolation. It has eight families of mam mals absolutely confined to it, including two fam ilies of monkeys, markedly different from those of the Old World (but no lemurs), the blood sucking bats, and the greater part of the order of Edentates, and many peculiar rodents. The continent has no Mustelidre nor Viverricke; only one kind of bear; almost no insectivora ; no lkses or related animals, except one species of tapir; no ruminants, except the eameloid llamas (not known elsewhere) , and only a few small ungulates of any sort. Birds display still great er isolation and singularity when compared with the avifauna of the Old World or of North Amer ica. Wallace gives 23 families and 600 genera as exclusively Neotropical, while that continent or its northerly extensions possess the greater part of many other important families, such as the humming-birds (some 400 species), tanagers, and macaws, to which must be added a long list of peculiar sea-fowl. Among reptiles there are less peculiar forms, the boas and seytales being most conspicuous among snakes; but there are several local families of lizards and many genera, the iguanids being widely developed, while the Lacertithe, and Agamidx, so charac teristic of the Old World, are entirely absent from America. The Amphibia present a similar case. Fishes of fresh waters are enormously abundant, and their resemblance, as a whole, is to the African piscifauna, while many are sur vivors of very ancient types, such as lepidosiren. Similar fasts might be adduced to show the regional exclusiveness of the insects and other invertebrates. On the whole, South America is characterized by the possession of a very uni formly distributed fauna, far more local and distinct from any other region than that of any other continent, unless it he Australia, probably inure than fou•-fifths of its species being re stricted to its zoogeographical boundaries. See DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS.