The Felidæ, or cats, “reach their greatest development as respects both
the number and the size of the species in the intertropical regions.
This family has sent a single typical representative, the panther
(_Felis concolor_), north of Mexico, and this ranges only to about the
northern boundary of the United States. The other North American
representatives of the family are the lynxes, which in some of their
varieties range from Alaska to Mexico.” Although they vary greatly in
different localities in color and in length and texture of pelage, they
do not vary as to the size of their skulls. On the other hand the
panther (and the ocelots) greatly increases in size southward, “or
toward the metropolis of the family.”
Other carnivora that increase in size northward are the badger, the
marten, the fisher, the wolverine, and the ermine, which are all
northern types.
Deer are also larger in the north; in the Virginia deer the annually
deciduous antlers of immense size reach their greatest development in
the north. The northern race of flying squirrels is one-half larger than
the southern, “yet the two extremes are found to pass so gradually one
into the other, that it is hardly possible to define even a southern and
a northern geographical race.” The species ranges from the arctic
regions to Central America.
In birds also similar relations exist, but there is less often an
increase in size northward. In species whose breeding station covers a
wide range of latitude, the northern birds are not only smaller, but
have quite different colors, as is markedly the case in the common
quail, the meadow-lark, the purple grackle, the red-winged blackbird,
the flicker, the towhee bunting, the Carolina dove, and in numerous
other species. The same difference is also quite apparent in the blue
jay, the crow, in most of the woodpeckers, in the titmice, numerous
sparrows, and several warblers and thrushes. The variation often amounts
to from ten to fifteen per cent of the average size of the species.
Allen also states that certain parts of the animal may vary
proportionately more than the general size, there being an apparent
tendency for peripheral parts to enlarge toward the warmer regions,
_i.e._ toward the south. “In mammals which have the external ears
largely developed—as in the wolves, foxes, some of the deer, and
especially the hares—the larger size of this organ in southern as
compared with northern individuals of the same species, is often
strikingly apparent.” It is even more apparent in species inhabiting
open plains. The ears of the gray rabbit of the plains of western
Arizona are twice the size of those of the Eastern states.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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