Ios 7 In Action

Summaryi OS 7 in Action is a detailed, hands-on guide that teaches you

how to create amazing native i OS apps. You'll dive into key topics by
exploring thoroughly explained real-world code examples you can expand
and reuse.

Author: Brendan Lim

ISBN: 9781638353232
Category: Computer Hardware
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Language: English
Publisher: Manning
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.
only be classed as stragglers, which, perhaps from too rapid
multiplication one year and want of food the next, are driven to
extend their ordinary range of migration to an unusual degree. We
will now endeavour to sketch the chief phenomena of migration in
different countries.

Europe.—It is well ascertained that most of the birds that spend

their spring and summer in the temperate parts of Europe pass the
winter in North Africa and Western Asia. The winter visitants, on the
other hand, pass the summer in the extreme north of Europe and
Asia, many of them having been found to breed in Lapland. The
arrival of migratory birds from the south is very constant as to date,
seldom varying more than a week or two, without any regard to the
weather at the time; but the departure is less constant, and more
dependent on the weather. Thus the swallow always comes to us
about the middle of April, however cold it may be, while its
departure may take place from the end of September to late in
October, and is said by Forster to occur on the first N. or N.E. wind
after the 20th of September.

Almost all the migratory birds of Europe go southward to the

Mediterranean, move along its coasts east or west, and cross over in
three places only; either from the south of Spain, in the
neighbourhood of Gibraltar, from Sicily over Malta, or to the east by
Greece and Cyprus. They are thus always in sight of land. The
passage of most small birds (and many of the larger ones too) takes
place at night; and they only cross the Mediterranean when the wind
is steady from near the east or west, and when there is moonlight.

It is a curious fact, but one that seems to be well authenticated, that

the males often leave before the females, and both before the young
birds, which in considerable numbers migrate later and alone. These
latter, however, seldom go so far as the old ones; and numbers of
young birds do not cross the Mediterranean, but stay in the south of
Europe. The same rule applies to the northward migration; the
young birds stopping short of the extreme arctic regions, to which
the old birds migrate.[1] When old and young go together, however,
the old birds take the lead. In the south of Europe few of the
migratory birds stay to breed, but pass on to more temperate zones;
thus, in the south of France, out of 350 species only 60 breed there.
The same species is often sedentary in one part of Europe and
migratory in another; thus, the chaffinch is a constant resident in
England, Germany, and the middle of France; but a migrant in the
south of France and in Holland: the rook visits the south of France in
winter only: the Falco tinnunculus is both a resident and a migrant in
the south of France, according to M. Marcel de Serres, there being
two regular passages every year, while a certain number always
remain.

We see, then, that migration is governed by certain intelligible laws;

and that it varies in many of its details, even in the same species,
according to changed conditions. It may be looked upon as an
exaggeration of a habit common to all locomotive animals, of moving
about in search of food. This habit is greatly restricted in quadrupeds
by their inability to cross the sea or even to pass through the highly-
cultivated valleys of such countries as Europe; but the power of
flight in birds enables them to cross every kind of country, and even
moderate widths of sea; and as they mostly travel at night and high
in the air, their movements are difficult to observe, and are supposed
to be more mysterious than they perhaps are. In the tropics birds
move about to different districts according as certain fruits become
ripe, certain insects abundant, or as flooded tracts dry up. On the
borders of the tropics and the temperate zone extends a belt of
country of a more or less arid character, and liable to be parched at
the summer solstice. In winter and early spring its northern margin
is verdant, but it soon becomes burnt up, and most of its birds
necessarily migrate to the more fertile regions to the north of them.
They thus follow the spring or summer as it advances from the south
towards the pole, feeding on the young flower buds, the abundance
of juicy larvæ, and on the ripening fruits; and as soon as these
become scarce they retrace their steps homewards to pass the
winter. Others whose home is nearer the pole are driven south by
cold, hunger, and darkness, to more hospitable climes, returning
northward in the early summer. As a typical example of a migratory
bird, let us take the nightingale. During the winter this bird inhabits
almost all North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Jordan Valley. Early in
April it passes into Europe by the three routes already mentioned,
and spreads over France, Britain, Denmark, and the south of
Sweden, which it reaches by the beginning of May. It does not enter
Brittany, the Channel Islands, or the western part of England, never
visiting Wales, except the extreme south of Glamorganshire, and
rarely extending farther north than Yorkshire. It spreads over Central
Europe, through Austria and Hungary to Southern Russia and the
warmer parts of Siberia, but it nevertheless breeds in the Jordan
Valley, so that in some places it is only the surplus population that
migrates. In August and September, all who can return to their
winter quarters.

Migrations of this type probably date back from at least the period
when there was continuous land along the route passed over; and it
is a suggestive fact that this land connection is known to have
existed in recent geological times. Britain was connected with the
Continent during, and probably before, the glacial epoch; and
Gibraltar, as well as Sicily and Malta, were also recently united with
Africa, as is proved by the fossil elephants and other large mammalia
found in their caverns, by the comparatively shallow water still
existing in this part of the Mediterranean while the remainder is of
oceanic profundity, and by the large amount of identity in the
species of land animals still inhabiting the opposite shores of the
Mediterranean. The submersion of these two tracts of land (which
were perhaps of considerable extent) would be a slow process, and
from year to year the change might be hardly perceptible. It is easy
to see how the migration that had once taken place over continuous
land would be kept up, first over lagoons and marshes, then over a
narrow channel, and subsequently over a considerable sea, no one
generation of birds ever perceiving any difference in the route.

There is, however, no doubt that the sea-passage is now very

dangerous to many birds. Quails cross in immense flocks, and great
numbers are drowned at sea whenever the weather is unfavourable.
Some individuals always stay through the winter in the south of
Europe, and a few even in England and Ireland; and were the sea to
become a little wider the migration would cease, and the quail, like
some other birds, would remain divided between south Europe and
north Africa. Aquatic birds are observed to follow the routes of great
rivers and lakes, and the shores of the sea. One great body reaches
central Europe by way of the Danube from the shores of the Black
Sea; another ascends the Rhone Valley from the Gulf of Lyons.

India and China.—In the peninsula of India and in China great

numbers of northern birds arrive during September and October, and
leave from March to May. Among the smaller birds are wagtails,
pipits, larks, stonechats, warblers, thrushes, buntings, shrikes,
starlings, hoopoes, and quails. Some species of cranes and storks,
many ducks, and great numbers of Scolopacidæ also visit India in
winter; and to prey upon these come a band of rapacious birds—the
peregrine falcon, the hobby, kestrel, common sparrowhawk, harrier,
and the short-eared owl. These birds are almost all natives of Europe
and Western Asia; they spread over all northern and central India,
mingling with the sedentary birds of the oriental fauna, and give to
the ornithology of Hindostan at this season quite a European aspect.
The peculiar species of the higher Himalayas do not as a rule
descend to the plains in winter, but merely come lower down the
mountains; and in southern India and Ceylon comparatively few of
these migratory birds appear.

In China the migratory birds follow generally the coast line, coming
southwards in winter from eastern Siberia and northern Japan; while
a few purely tropical forms travel northwards in summer to Japan,
and on the mainland as far as the valley of the Amoor.

North America.—The migrations of birds in North America have been

carefully studied by resident naturalists, and present some
interesting features. The birds of the eastern parts of North America
are pre-eminently migratory, a much smaller proportion being
permanent residents than in corresponding latitudes in Europe.
Thus, in Massachusetts there are only about 30 species of birds
which are resident all the year, while the regular summer visitors are
106. Comparing with this our own country, though considerably
further north, the proportions are reversed; there being 140
residents and 63 summer visitors. This difference is clearly due to
the much greater length and severity of the winter, and the greater
heat of summer, in America than with us. The number of permanent
residents increases pretty regularly as we go southward; but the
number of birds at any locality during the breeding season seems to
increase as we go northward as far as Canada, where, according to
Mr. Allen, more species breed than in the warm Southern States.
Even in the extreme north, beyond the limit of forests, there are no
less than 60 species which breed; in Canada about 160; while in
Carolina there are only 135, and in Louisiana, 130. The extent of the
migration varies greatly, some species only going a few degrees
north and south, while others migrate annually from the tropics to
the extreme north of the continent; and every gradation occurs
between these extremes. Among those which migrate furthest are
the species of Dendrœca, and other American flycatching warblers
(Mniotiltidæ), many of which breed on the shores of Hudson's Bay,
and spend the winter in Mexico or the West Indian islands.

The great migratory movement of 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, and
most of those which winter in Mexico and Guatemala, are exclusively
eastern species; though a few Rocky Mountain birds range
southward along the plateaux of Mexico and Guatemala, but
probably not as regular annual migrants.

In America as in Europe birds appear in spring with great regularity,

while the time of the autumnal return is less constant. More curious
is the fact, also observed in both hemispheres, that they do not all
return by the same route followed in going northwards, some
species being constant visitors to certain localities in spring but not
in autumn, others in autumn but not in spring.

Some interesting cases have been observed in America of a gradual

alteration in the extent of the migration of certain birds. A Mexican
swallow (Hirundo lunifrons) first appeared in Ohio in 1815. Year by
year it increased the extent of its range till by 1845 it had reached
Maine and Canada; and it is now quoted by American writers as
extending its annual migrations to Hudson's Bay. An American wren
(Troglodytes ludovicianus) is another bird which has spread
considerably northwards since the time of the ornithologist Wilson;
and the rice-bird, or "Bob-o'-link," of the Americans, continually
widens its range as rice and wheat are more extensively cultivated.
This bird winters in Cuba and other West Indian Islands, and
probably also in Mexico. In April it enters the Southern States and
passes northward, till in June it reaches Canada and extends west to
the Saskatchewan River in 54° north latitude.

South Temperate America.—The migratory birds of this part of the

world have been observed by Mr. Hudson at Buenos Ayres. As in
Europe and North America, there are winter and summer visitors,
from Patagonia and the tropics respectively. Species of Pyrocephalus,
Milvulus, swallows, and a hummingbird, are among the most regular
of the summer visitors. They are all insectivorous birds. From
Patagonia species of Tænioptera, Cinclodes, and Centrites, come in
winter, with two gulls, two geese, and six snipes and plovers. Five
species of swallows appear at Buenos Ayres in spring, some staying
to breed, others passing on to more temperate regions farther
south. As a rule the birds which come late and leave early are the
most regular. Some are very irregular in their movements, the
Molothrus bonariensis, for example, sometimes leaves early in
autumn, sometimes remains all the winter. Some resident birds also
move in winter to districts where they are never seen in summer.

General Remarks on Migration.—The preceding summary of the main

facts of migration (which might have been almost indefinitely
extended, owing to the great mass of detailed information that
exists on the subject) appears to accord with the view already
suggested, that the "instinct" of migration has arisen from the habit
of wandering in search of food common to all animals, but greatly
exaggerated in the case of birds by their powers of flight and by the
necessity for procuring a large amount of soft insect food for their
unfledged young. Migration in its simple form may be best studied in
North America, where it takes place over a continuous land surface
with a considerable change of climate from south to north. We have
here (as probably in Europe and elsewhere) every grade of
migration, from species which merely shift the northern and
southern limits of their range a few hundred miles, so that in the
central parts of the area the species is a permanent resident, to
others which move completely over 1,000 miles of latitude, so that
in all the intervening districts they are only known as birds of
passage. Now, just as the rice-bird and the Mexican swallow have
extended their migrations, owing to favourable conditions induced by
human agency; so we may presume that large numbers of species
would extend their range where favourable conditions arose through
natural causes. If we go back only as far as the height of the glacial
epoch, there is reason to believe that all North America, as far south
as about 40° north latitude, was covered with an almost continuous
and perennial ice-sheet. At this time the migratory birds would
extend up to this barrier (which would probably terminate in the
midst of luxuriant vegetation, just as the glaciers of Switzerland now
often terminate amid forests and corn-fields), and as the cold
decreased and the ice retired almost imperceptibly year by year,
would follow it up farther and farther according as the peculiarities
of vegetation and insect-food were more or less suited to their
several constitutions. It is an ascertained fact that many individual
birds return year after year to build their nests in the same spot.
This shows a strong local attachment, and is, in fact, the faculty or
feeling on which their very existence probably depends. For were
they to wander at random each year, they would almost certainly not
meet with places so well suited to them, and might even get into
districts where they or their young would inevitably perish. It is also
a curious fact that in so many cases the old birds migrate first,
leaving the young ones behind, who follow some short time later,
but do not go so far as their parents. This is very strongly opposed
to the notion of an imperative instinct. The old birds have been
before, the young have not; and it is only when the old ones have all
or nearly all gone that the young go too, probably following some of
the latest stragglers. They wander, however, almost at random, and
the majority are destroyed before the next spring. This is proved by
the fact that the birds which return in spring are as a rule not more
numerous than those which came the preceding spring, whereas
those which went away in autumn were two or three times as
numerous. Those young birds that do get back, however, have learnt
by experience, and the next year they take care to go with the old
ones. The most striking fact in favour of the "instinct" of migration is
the "agitation," or excitement, of confined birds at the time when
their wild companions are migrating. It seems probable, however,
that this is what may be called a social excitement, due to the
anxious cries of the migrating birds; a view supported by the fact
stated by Marcel de Serres, that the black swan of Australia, when
domesticated in Europe, sometimes joins wild swans in their
northward migration. We must remember too that migration at the
proper time is in many cases absolutely essential to the existence of
the species; and it is therefore not improbable that some strong
social emotion should have been gradually developed in the race, by
the circumstance that all who for want of such emotion did not join
their fellows inevitably perished.

The mode by which a passage originally overland has been

converted into one over the sea offers no insuperable difficulties, as
has already been pointed out. The long flights of some birds without
apparently stopping on the way is thought to be inexplicable, as well
as their finding their nesting-place of the previous year from a
distance of many hundreds or even a thousand miles. But the
observant powers of animals are very great; and birds flying high in
the air may be guided by the physical features of the country spread
out beneath them in a way that would be impracticable to purely
terrestrial animals.

It is assumed by some writers that the breeding-place of a species is

to be considered as its true home rather than that to which it retires
in winter; but this can hardly be accepted as a rule of universal
application. A bird can only breed successfully where it can find
sufficient food for its young; and the reason probably why so many
of the smaller birds leave the warm southern regions to breed in
temperate or even cold latitudes, is because caterpillars and other
soft insect larvæ are there abundant at the proper time, while in
their winter home the larvæ have all changed into winged insects.
But this favourable breeding district will change its position with
change of climate; and as the last great change has been one of
increased warmth in all the temperate zones, it is probable that
many of the migratory birds are comparatively recent visitors. Other
changes may however have taken place, affecting the vegetation
and consequently the insects of a district; and we have seldom the
means of determining in any particular case in what direction the
last extension of range occurred. For the purposes of the study of
geographical distribution therefore, we must, except in special cases,
consider the true range of a species to comprise all the area which it
occupies regularly for any part of the year, while all those districts
which it only visits at more or less distant intervals, apparently
driven by storms or by hunger, and where it never regularly or
permanently settles, should not be included as forming part of its
area of distribution.

Means of Dispersal of Reptiles and Amphibia.—If we leave out of

consideration the true marine groups—the turtles and sea-snakes—
reptiles are scarcely more fitted for traversing seas and oceans than
are mammalia. We accordingly find that in those oceanic islands
which possess no indigenous mammals, land reptiles are also
generally wanting. The several groups of these animals, however,
differ considerably both in their means of dispersal and in their
power of resisting adverse conditions. Snakes are most dependent
on climate, becoming very scarce in temperate and cold climates and
entirely ceasing at 62° north latitude, and they do not ascend very
lofty mountains, ceasing at 6,000 feet elevation in the Alps. Some
inhabit deserts, others swamps and marshes, while many are
adapted for a life in forests. They swim rivers easily, but apparently
have no means of passing the sea, since they are very rarely found
on oceanic islands. Lizards are also essentially tropical, but they go
somewhat farther north than snakes, and ascend higher on the
mountains, reaching 10,000 feet in the Alps. They possess too some
unknown means (probably in the egg-state) of passing over the
ocean, since they are found to inhabit many islands where there are
neither mammalia nor snakes.

The amphibia are much less sensitive to cold than are true reptiles,
and they accordingly extend much farther north, frogs being found
within the arctic circle. Their semi-aquatic life also gives them
facilities for dispersal, and their eggs are no doubt sometimes
carried by aquatic birds from one pond or stream to another. Salt
water is fatal to them as well as to their eggs, and hence it arises
that they are seldom found in those oceanic islands from which
mammalia are absent. Deserts and oceans would probably form the
most effectual barriers to their dispersal; whereas both snakes and
lizards abound in deserts, and have some means of occasionally
passing the ocean which frogs and salamanders do not seem to
possess.

Means of Dispersal of Fishes.—The fact that the same species of

freshwater fish often inhabit distinct river systems, proves that they
have some means of dispersal over land. The many authentic
accounts of fish falling from the atmosphere, indicate one of the
means by which they may be transferred from one river basin to
another, viz., by hurricanes and whirlwinds, which often carry up
considerable quantities of water and with it fishes of small size. In
volcanic countries, also, the fishes of subterranean streams may
sometimes be thrown up by volcanic explosions, as Humboldt relates
happened in 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 that some of these
pass through their bodies with their vitality unimpaired.[2] Even
water-beetles flying from one pond to another might occasionally
carry with them some of the smaller eggs of fishes. But it is probable
that fresh-water fish are also enabled to migrate by changes of level
causing streams to alter their course and carry their waters into
adjacent basins. On plateaux the sources of distinct river systems
often approach each other, and the same thing occurs with lateral
tributaries on the lowlands near their mouths. Such changes,
although small in extent, and occurring only at long intervals, would
act very powerfully in modifying the distribution of fresh-water fish.

Sea fish would seem at first sight to have almost unlimited means of
dispersal, but this is far from being the case. Temperature forms a
complete barrier to a large number of species, cold water being
essential to many, while others can only dwell in the warmth of the
tropics. Deep water is another barrier to large numbers of species
which are adapted to shores and shallows; and thus the Atlantic is
quite as impassable a gulf to most fishes as it is to birds. Many sea
fishes migrate to a limited extent for the purpose of depositing their
spawn in favourable situations. The herring, an inhabitant of the
deep sea, comes in shoals to our coast in the breeding season; while
the salmon quits the northern seas and enters our rivers, mounting
upwards to the clear cold water near their sources to deposit its
eggs. Keeping in mind the essential fact that changes of temperature
and of depth are the main barriers to the dispersal of fish, we shall
find little difficulty in tracing the causes that have determined their
distribution.

Means of Dispersal of Mollusca.—The marine, fresh-water, and land

mollusca are three groups whose powers of dispersal and
consequent distribution are very different, and must be separately
considered. The Pteropoda, the Ianthina, and other groups of
floating molluscs, drift about in mid-ocean, and their dispersal is
probably limited chiefly by temperature, but perhaps also by the
presence of enemies or the scarcity of proper food. The univalve and
bivalve mollusca, of which the whelk and the cockle may be taken as
types, move so slowly in their adult state, that we should expect
them to have an exceedingly limited distribution; but the young of all
these are free swimming embryos, and they thus have a powerful
means of dispersal, and are carried by tides and currents so as
ultimately to spread over every shore and shoal that offers
conditions favourable for their development. The fresh water
molluscs, which one might at first suppose could not range beyond
their own river-basin, are yet very widely distributed in common with
almost all other fresh water productions; and Mr. Darwin has shown
that this is due to the fact, that ponds and marshes are constantly
frequented by wading and swimming birds which are pre-eminently
wanderers, and which frequently carry away with them the seeds of
plants, and the eggs of molluscs and aquatic insects. Fresh water
molluscs just hatched were found to attach themselves to a duck's
foot suspended in an aquarium; and they would thus be easily
carried from one lake or river to another, and by the help of different
species of aquatic birds, might soon spread all over the globe. Even
a water-beetle has been caught with a small living shell (Ancylus)
attached to it; and these fly long distances and are liable to be
blown out to sea, one having been caught on board the Beagle
when forty-five miles from land. Although fresh water molluscs and
their eggs must frequently be carried out to sea, yet this cannot lead
to their dispersal, since salt water is almost immediately fatal to
them; and we are therefore forced to conclude that the apparently
insignificant and uncertain means of dispersal above alluded to are
really what have led to their wide distribution. The true land-shells
offer a still more difficult case, for they are exceedingly sensitive to
the influence of salt water; they are not likely to be carried by
aquatic birds, and yet they are more or less abundant all over the
globe, inhabiting the most remote oceanic islands. It has been
found, however, that land-shells have the power of lying dormant a
long time. Some have lived two years and a half shut up in pill
boxes; and one Egyptian desert snail came to life after having been
glued down to a tablet in the British Museum for four years!

We are indebted to Mr. Darwin for experiments on the power of land

shells to resist sea water, and he found that when they had formed a
membranous diaphragm over the mouth of the shell they survived
many days' immersion (in one case fourteen days); and another
experimenter, quoted by Mr. Darwin, found that out of one hundred
land shells immersed for a fortnight in the sea, twenty-seven
recovered. It is therefore quite possible for them to be carried in the
chinks of drift wood for many hundred miles across the sea, and this
is probably one of the most effectual modes of their dispersal. Very
young shells would also sometimes attach themselves to the feet of
birds walking or resting on the ground, and as many of the waders
often go far inland, this may have been one of the methods of
distributing species of land shells; for it must always be remembered
that nature can afford to wait, and that if but once in a thousand
years a single bird should convey two or three minute snails to a
distant island, this is all that is required for us to find that island well
stocked with a great and varied population of land shells.
Means of Dispersal of Insects and the Barriers which Limit their
Range.—Winged insects, as a whole, have perhaps more varied
means of dispersal over the globe than any other highly organised
animals. Many of them can fly immense distances, and the more
delicate ones are liable to be carried by storms and hurricanes over
a wide expanse of ocean. They are often met with far out at sea.
Hawk-moths frequently fly on board ships as they approach the
shores of tropical countries, and they have sometimes been captured
more than 250 miles from the nearest land. Dragon-flies came on
board the Adventure frigate when fifty miles off the coast of 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 alive in the Bay of Bengal by Captain
Payne of the barque William Mansoon, 273 miles from the nearest
land. Darwin caught a locust 370 miles from land; and in 1844
swarms of locusts several miles in extent, and as thick as the flakes
in a heavy snowstorm, visited Madeira. These must have come with
perfect safety more than 300 miles; and as they continued flying
over the island for a long time, they could evidently have travelled to
a much greater distance. Numbers of living beetles belonging to
seven genera, some aquatic and some terrestrial, were caught by
Mr. Darwin in the open sea, seventeen miles from the coast of South
America, and they did not seem injured by the salt water. Almost all
the accidental causes that lead to the dispersal of the higher animals
would be still more favourable for insects. Floating trees could carry
hundreds of insects for one bird or mammal; and so many of the
larvæ, eggs, and pupæ of insects have their abode in solid timber,
that they might survive being floated immense distances. Great
numbers of tropical insects have been captured in the London docks,
where they have been brought in foreign timber; and some have
emerged from furniture after remaining torpid for many years. Most
insects have the power of existing weeks or months without food,
and some are very tenacious of life. Many beetles will survive
immersion for hours in strong spirit; and water a few degrees below
the boiling point will not always kill them. We can therefore easily
understand how, in the course of ages insects may become
dispersed by means which would be quite inadequate in the case of
the higher animals. The drift-wood and tropical fruits that reach
Ireland and the Orkneys; the double cocoa-nuts that cross the
Indian ocean from the Seychelle Islands to the coast of Sumatra; the
winds that carry volcanic dust and ashes for thousands of miles; the
hurricanes that travel in their revolving course over wide oceans; all
indicate means by which a few insects may, at rare intervals be
carried to remote regions, and become the progenitors of a group of
allied forms.

But the dispersal of insects requires to be looked at from another

point of view. They are, of all animals, perhaps the most wonderfully
adapted for special conditions; and are so often fitted to fill one
place in nature and one only, that the barriers against their
permanent displacement are almost as numerous and as effective as
their means of dispersal. Hundreds of species of lepidoptera, for
example, can subsist in the larva state only on one species of plant;
so that even if the perfect insects were carried to a new country, the
continuance of the race would depend upon the same or a closely
allied plant being abundant there. Other insects require succulent
vegetable food all the year round, and are therefore confined to
tropical regions; some can live only in deserts, others in forests;
some are dependent on water-plants, some on mountain-vegetation.
Many are so intimately connected with other insects during some
part of their existence that they could not live without them; such
are the parasitical hymenoptera and diptera, and those mimicking
species whose welfare depends upon their being mistaken for
something else. Then again, insects have enemies in every stage of
their existence—the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the perfect form;
and the abundance of any one of these enemies may render their
survival impossible in a country otherwise well suited to them. Ever
bearing in mind these two opposing classes of facts, we shall not be
surprised at the enormous range of some groups of insects, and at
the extreme localization of others; and shall be able to give a
rational account of many phenomena of distribution that would
otherwise seem quite unintelligible.
 CHAPTER III.

DISTRIBUTION AS AFFECTED BY THE CONDITIONS AND CHANGES OF THE

EARTH'S SURFACE.

The distribution of animals over the earth's surface, is evidently

dependent in great measure upon those grand and important
characteristics of our globe, the study of which is termed physical
geography. The proportion of land and water; the outlines and
distribution of continents; the depth of seas and oceans; the position
of islands; the height, direction, and continuity of mountain chains;
the position and extent of deserts, lakes, and forests; the direction
and velocity of ocean currents, as well as of prevalent winds and
hurricanes; and lastly, the distribution of heat and cold, of rain,
snow, and ice, both in their means and in their extremes, have all to
be considered when we endeavour to account for the often unequal
and unsymmetrical manner in which animals are dispersed over the
globe. But even this knowledge is insufficient unless we inquire
further as to the evidence of permanence possessed by each of
these features, in order that we may give due weight to the various
causes that have led to the existing facts of animal distribution.

Land and Water.—The well-known fact that nearly three-fourths of

the surface of the earth is occupied by water, and but a little more
than one-fourth by land, is important as indicating the vast extent of
ocean by which many of the continents and islands are separated
from each other. But there is another fact which greatly increases its
importance, namely, that the mean height of the land is very small
compared with the mean depth of the sea. It has been estimated by
Humboldt that the mean height of all the land surface does not
exceed a thousand feet, owing to the comparative narrowness of
mountain ranges and the great extent of alluvial plains and valleys;
the ocean bed, on the contrary, not only descends deeper than the
tops of the highest mountains rise above its surface, but these
profound depths are broad sunken plains, while the shallows
correspond to the mountain ranges, so that its mean depth is, as
nearly as can be estimated, twelve thousand feet.[3] Hence, as the
area of water is three times that of the land, the total cubical
contents of the land, above the sea level, would be only that of the
waters which are below that level. The important result follows, that
whereas it is scarcely possible that in past times the amount of land
surface should ever greatly have exceeded that which now exists, it
is just possible that all the land may have been at some time
submerged; and therefore in the highest degree probable that
among the continual changes of land and sea that have been always
going on, the amount of land surface has often been much less than
it is now. For the same reason it is probable that there have been
times when large masses of land have been more isolated from the
rest than they are at present; just as South America would be if
North America were submerged, or as Australia would become if the
Malay Archipelago were to sink beneath the ocean. It is also very
important to bear in mind the fact insisted on by Sir Charles Lyell,
that the shallow parts of the ocean are almost always in the vicinity
of land; and that an amount of elevation that would make little
difference to the bed of the ocean, would raise up extensive tracts of
dry land in the vicinity of existing continents. It is almost certain,
therefore, that changes in the distribution of land and sea must have
taken place more frequently by additions to, or modifications of pre-
existing land, than by the upheaval of entirely new continents in
mid-ocean. These two principles will throw light upon two constantly
recurring groups of facts in the distribution of animals,—the
restriction of peculiar forms to areas not at present isolated,—and on
the other hand, the occurrence of allied forms in lands situated on
opposite shores of the great oceans.

Continental Areas.—Although the dry land of the earth's surface is

distributed with so much irregularity, that there is more than twice
as much north of the equator as there is south of it, and about twice
as much in the Asiatic as in the American hemisphere; and, what is
still more extraordinary, that on a hemisphere of which a point in St.
George's Channel between England and Ireland is the centre, the
land is nearly equal in extent to the water, while in the opposite
hemisphere it is in the proportion of only one-eighth,—yet the whole
of the land is almost continuous. It consists essentially of only three
masses: the American, the Asia-African, and the Australian. The two
former are only separated by thirty-six miles of shallow sea at
Behring's 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 Town. This curious
fact, of the almost perfect continuity of all the great masses of land
notwithstanding their extremely irregular shape and distribution, is
no doubt dependent on the circumstances just alluded to; that the
great depth of the oceans and the slowness of the process of
upheaval, has almost always produced the new lands either close to,
or actually connected with pre-existing lands; and this has
necessarily led to a much greater uniformity in the distribution of
organic forms, than would have prevailed had the continents been
more completely isolated from each other.

The isthmuses which connect Africa with Asia, and North with South
America, are, however, so small and insignificant compared with the
vast extent of the countries they unite that we can hardly consider
them to form more than a nominal connection. The Isthmus of Suez
indeed, being itself a desert, and connecting districts which for a
great distance are more or less desert also, does not effect any real
union between the luxuriant forest-clad regions of intertropical Asia
and Africa. The Isthmus of Panama is a more effectual line of union,
since it is hilly, well watered, and covered with luxuriant vegetation;
and we accordingly find that the main features of South American
zoology are continued into Central America and Mexico. In Asia a
great transverse barrier exists, dividing that continent into a
northern and southern portion; and as the lowlands occur on the
south and the highlands on the north of the great mountain range,
which is situated not far beyond the tropic, an abrupt change of
climate is produced; so that a belt of about a hundred miles wide, is
all that intervenes between a luxuriant tropical region and an almost
arctic waste. Between the northern part of Asia, and Europe, there is
no barrier of importance; and it is impossible to separate these
regions as regards the main features of animal life. Africa, like Asia,
has a great transverse barrier, but it is a desert instead of a
mountain chain; and it is found that this desert is a more effectual
barrier to the diffusion of animals than the Mediterranean Sea; partly
because it coincides with the natural division of a tropical from a
temperate climate, but also on account of recent geological changes
which we shall presently allude to. It results then from this outline
sketch of the earth's surface, that the primary divisions of the
geographer correspond approximately with those of the zoologist.
Some large portion of each of the popular divisions forms the
nucleus of a zoological region; but the boundaries are so changed
that the geographer would hardly recognise them: it has, therefore,
been found necessary to give them those distinct names which will
be fully explained in our next chapter.

Recent Changes in the Continental Areas.—The important fact has

been now ascertained, that a considerable portion of the Sahara
south of Algeria and Morocco was under water at a very recent
epoch. Over much of this area sea-shells, identical with those now
living in the Mediterranean, are abundantly scattered, not only in
depressions below the level of the sea but up to a height of 900 feet
above it. Borings for water made by the French government have
shown, that these shells occur twenty feet deep in the sand; and the
occurrence of abundance of salt, sometimes even forming
considerable hills, is an additional proof of the disappearance of a
large body of salt water. The common cockle is one of the most
abundant of the shells found; and the Rev. H. B. Tristram discovered
a new fish, in a salt lake nearly 300 miles inland, but which has since
been found to inhabit the Gulf of Guinea. Connected with this proof
of recent elevation in the Sahara, we have most interesting