The Geographical Distribution of Animals: With a Study of the Relations of Living and Extinct Faunas as Elucidating the Past Changes of the Earth's Surface, 1. köideHarper and brothers, 1876 |
From inside the book
Page 17
... American coast but a few which pass by way of Iceland and Greenland ; whereas a considerable number do reach the ... South America a large number of the birds have their ranges determined by the ex- tent of the forest country , while ...
... American coast but a few which pass by way of Iceland and Greenland ; whereas a considerable number do reach the ... South America a large number of the birds have their ranges determined by the ex- tent of the forest country , while ...
Page 18
... South America the same birds are comparatively scarce in the forest plains where monkeys are very abundant , while they are plentiful on the open plains and campos , and on the mountain plateaux , where these nest - hunting quadrupeds ...
... South America the same birds are comparatively scarce in the forest plains where monkeys are very abundant , while they are plentiful on the open plains and campos , and on the mountain plateaux , where these nest - hunting quadrupeds ...
Page 24
... American birds is almost wholly confined to the east coast ; the birds of the high central plains and of California being for the most part sedentary , or only migrating for short distances . All the species which reach South America ...
... American birds is almost wholly confined to the east coast ; the birds of the high central plains and of California being for the most part sedentary , or only migrating for short distances . All the species which reach South America ...
Page 29
... South America . Another mode by which fishes may be distributed is by their eggs being occasionally carried away by aquatic birds ; and it is stated by Gmelin that geese and ducks during their migrations feed on the eggs of fish , and ...
... South America . Another mode by which fishes may be distributed is by their eggs being occasionally carried away by aquatic birds ; and it is stated by Gmelin that geese and ducks during their migrations feed on the eggs of fish , and ...
Page 32
... South America . A southerly wind brought flies in myriads to Admiral Smyth's ship in the Mediterranean when he was 100 miles distant from the coast of Africa . A large Indian beetle ( Chrysochroa ocellata ) was quite recently caught ...
... South America . A southerly wind brought flies in myriads to Admiral Smyth's ship in the Mediterranean when he was 100 miles distant from the coast of Africa . A large Indian beetle ( Chrysochroa ocellata ) was quite recently caught ...
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Common terms and phrases
absence abundant Abyssinia affinities Africa and Madagascar allied Amphibia animals antelopes arctic Asia Austral Australian region beetles belong birds Borneo Burmah Carnivora Celebes Central Ceylon characteristic China climate Coleoptera confined Cosmopolite Cosmopolite Cosmopolite deposits desert distribution district east Eocene epoch Ethiopian Ethiopian region European excl existing extend families fauna forests Formosa genera genus geographical globe groups Guinea Himalayas hyænas India inhabit Insectivora insects islands Java land large number less lizards Machairodus Madagascar Madeira Malacca Malay Malaya Malayan mammalia migration Miocene Miocene period Moluccas mountains Nearctic Neotropical North northern occur ocean Oriental genus Oriental region Palearctic Palearctic region Papuan peculiar forms peculiar genera peculiar genus peculiar species perhaps Philippines Pliocene possesses Post-Pliocene probably range regions but Australian remarkable represented reptiles rhinoceros South America southern sub-region Sumatra tapir Tasmania temperate Tertiary Thibet Timor Tropical Africa tropical regions types Ungulata West Africa whole region wholly Zealand zoological regions
Popular passages
Page 150 - Yet it is surely a marvellous fact, and one that has hardly been sufficiently dwelt upon, this sudden dying out of so many large mammalia, not in one place only but over half the land surface of the globe.
Page 37 - Straits, so that it is possible to go from Cape Horn to Singapore or the Cape of Good Hope without ever being out of sight of land ; and owing to the intervention of the numerous islands of the Malay Archipelago the journey might be continued under the same conditions as far as Melbourne and Hobart...
Page 402 - Temperate South America ; while another species is common to New Zealand and the Auckland Islands. We cannot believe that a land connection has existed between all these remote lands within the period of existence of this one species of fish, not only on account of what we know of the permanence of continents and deep oceans, but because such a connection must have led to much more numerous and important cases of similarity of natural productions than we actually find. And if within the life of species...
Page 50 - To the modern naturalist, on the other hand, the native country (or 'habitat,' as it is technically termed) of an animal or a group of animals is a matter of the first importance ; and as regards the general history of life upon the globe, may be considered to be one of its essential characters." That certain divisions, or "regions," bounded by distinct lines of demarcation, exist to represent the natural method of distribution of animals or plants on the earth's surface, is a fact readily provable....
Page 57 - Eegions in the first place, from a consideration of the distribution of mammalia, only bringing to our aid the distribution of other groups to determine doubtful points. Regions so established will be most closely in accordance with those long-enduring features of physical geography, on which the distribution of all forms of life fundamentally depends;* and all discrepancies in the distribution of other classes of animals must be capable of being explained, either...
Page 67 - ... who cannot recognize the essential diversity of structure in such groups as swifts and swallows, sun-birds and humming-birds, under the superficial disguise caused by adaptation to a similar mode of life. The application of Mr. Allen's principle leads to equally erroneous results, as may be well seen by considering his separation of 'the southern third of Australia' to unite it with New Zealand as one of his secondary zoological divisions."t Leaving Mr.
Page 44 - The introduction of goats into St. Helena utterly destroyed a whole flora of forest trees, and with them all the insects, mollusca, and perhaps birds directly or indirectly dependent on them.
Page 290 - The enormous disproportion between the mean height of the land and the mean depth of the ocean, which would render it very difficult for new land to reach the surface till long after the total submergence of the sinking continent. (2) The wonderful uniformity of level over by far the greater part of the ocean floor, which indicates that it is not subject to the same disturbing agencies which...
Page 76 - is undoubtedly a legitimate and highly probable supposition, and it is an example of the way in which a study of the geographical distribution of animals may enable us to reconstruct the geography of a bygone age. ... It...
Page 400 - It is important here to notice that the heat-loving Reptilia afford hardly any indications of close affinity between the two regions, while the cold-enduring amphibia and fresh-water fish offer them in abundance.