The geographical and geological distribution of animals / Angelo Heilprin.

  • Heilprin, Angelo, 1853-1907.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The geographical and geological distribution of animals / Angelo Heilprin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/466 (page 2)
    may appear the circumstance that, in most cases, island faunas are so eminently marked out from those of continental areas. Another peculiarity in faunal distribution is presented in the fact that, while certain animal assemblages enjoy an almost limit- less or universal extension, others, again, without apparent reason, are circumscribed within limits of the opposite extreme. The trav- eller to the most distant shores not infrequently recognises objects that are familiar to him as those of his native home, although pos- sibly, in the interval of his journey, he has completely lost sight of their existence, so different might have been the creatures that successively met his gaze. “ When an Englishman travels by the nearest sea-route from Great Britain to Northern Japan, he passes by countries very unlike his own, both in aspect and natural pro- ductions. The sunny isles of the Mediterranean, the sands and date-palms of Egypt, the arid rocks of Aden, the cocoa-groves of Ceylon, the tiger-haunted jungles of Malacca and Singapore, the fertile plains and volcanic peaks of Luzon, the forest-clad mountains of Formosa, and the bare lulls of China, pass successively in review; till after a circuitous voyage of thirteen thousand miles he finds himself at Hakodadi, in Japan. He is now separated from his starting-point by the whole width of Europe and Northern Asia, by an almost endless succession of plains and mountains, arid deserts or icy plateaux, yet when he visits the interior of the coun- try he sees so many familiar natural objects that he can hardly help fancying he is close to his home. He finds the woods and fields tenanted by tits, hedge-sparrows, wrens, wagtails, larks, red- breasts, thrushes, buntings, and house-sparrows, some absolutely identical with our own feathered friends, others so closely resem- bling them that it requires a practised ornithologist to tell the differ- ence. If he is fond of insects he notices many butterflies and a host of beetles which, though on close examination they are found to be distinct from ours, are yet of the same general aspect, and seem just what might be expected in any part of Europe. There are also, of course, many birds and insects which are quite new and peculiar, but these are by no means so numerous or conspicuous as to remove the general impression of a wonderful resemblance between the productions of such remote islands as Britain and Yesso.”* * Wallace, “ Island Life,” p. 3.