Page images
PDF
EPUB

forms and their habitats, are entirely unnoticed, owing to the productions of the same locality never being associated in our museums and collections. A few such relations have been brought to light by modern scientific travellers, but many more remain to be discovered; and there is probably no fresher and more productive field still unexplored in Natural History. Most of these curious and suggestive relations are to be found in the productions of islands, as compared with each other, or with the continents of which they form appendages; but these can never be properly studied, or even discovered, unless they are visibly grouped together. When the birds, the more conspicuous families of insects, and the land-shells of islands, are kept together so as to be readily compared with similar associations from the adjacent continents or other islands, it is believed that in almost every case there will be found to be peculiarities of form or colour running through widely different groups, and strictly indicative of local or geographical influences. Some of these coincident variations have been alluded to in various parts of this work, but they have never been systematically investigated. They constitute an unworked mine of wealth for the enterprising explorer; and they may not improbably lead to the discovery of some of the hidden laws (supplementary to Natural Selection), which seem to be required, in order to account for many of the external characteristics of animals.

In concluding his task, the author ventures to suggest, that naturalists who are disposed to turn aside from the beaten track of research, may find in the line of study here suggested a new and interesting pursuit, not inferior in attractions to the lofty heights of transcendental anatomy, or the bewildering mazes of modern classification. And it is a study which will surely lead them to an increased appreciation of the beauty and the harmony of nature, and to a fuller comprehension of the complex relations and mutual interdependence, which link together every animal and vegetable form, with the ever-changing earth which supports them, into one grand organic whole.

1

GENERAL INDEX.

GENERAL INDEX.

ALL names in Italics refer, either to the genera and other groups of Extinct
Animals in Part II. of the First Volume;-or to the genera whose distribution
is given under Geographical Zoology (Part IV.) in the Second Volume; the
Families and higher groups being in small capitals. All other references are in
ordinary type.

The various matters discussed under Zoological Geography (Part III.). are
indexed as much as possible by subjects and localities.
None of the genera
mentioned in this Part are indexed, as this would have more than doubled the
extent of the Index, and would have served no useful purpose, because the
general distribution of each genus is given in Part IV., and the separate details
can always be found by referring to the region, sub-region, and class.

[blocks in formation]

Acara, ii. 438
Accentor, ii. 260
Accentorinæ, ii. 257
Accipenser, ii. 459
ACCIPENSERIDÆ, ii. 459
Accipiter, ii. 348

Accipitres, European Eocene, i. 163
Accipitres, classification of, i. 97

range of Palearctic genera of, i. 248
range of Ethiopian genera of, i. 312
range of Oriental genera of, i. 385
range of Australian genera of, i. 486
ACCIPITRES, ii. 345

general remarks on the distribution of, ii.
351

ACCIPITRINÆ, ií. 347

Acerina, ii. 425

Aceros, ii. 317

Acerotherium, ii. 214

Acerotherium, European Miocene, i. 119

N. American Tertiary, i. 136

Acestra, ii. 444

Acestura, ii. 108

Achalinus, ii. 375

Acharnes, ii. 434

Achatina, ii. 515

Achatinella, ii. 514

Acherontia, ii. 483

Achilognathus, ii. 452

Achænodon, N. American Tertiary, i. 138

Acicula, ii. 519

ACICULIDÆ, ii. 519

Acmæodera, ii. 497

Acodon, ii. 230

ACONTIADE, ii. $99

Acontias, ii. 399

[blocks in formation]
« EelmineJätka »