A more detailed and accurate knowledge of the productions of different portions of the earth soon showed that this explanation was quite insufficient; for it was found that countries exceedingly similar in climate and all physical features may yet have very distinct animal populations. The equatorial parts of Africa and South America, for example, are very similar in climate and are both covered with luxuriant forests, yet their animal life is widely different; elephants, apes, leopards, guinea-fowls and touracos in the one, are replaced by tapirs, prehensile-tailed monkeys, jaguars, curassows and toucans in the other. Again, parts of South Africa and Australia are wonderfully similar in their soil and climate; yet one has lions, antelopes, zebras and giraffes; the other only kangaroos, wombats, {6}phalangers and mice. In like manner parts of North America and Europe are very similar in all essentials of soil climate and vegetation, yet the former has racoons, opossums, and humming-birds; while the latter possesses moles, hedgehogs and true flycatchers. Equally striking are the facts presented by the distribution of many large and important groups of animals. Marsupials (opossums, phalangers &c.) are found from temperate Van Diemen's land to the tropical islands of New Guinea and Celebes, and in America from Chili to Virginia. No crows exist in South America, while they inhabit every other part of the world, not excepting Australia. Antelopes are found only in Africa and Asia; the sloths only in South America; the true lemurs are confined to Madagascar, and the birds-of-paradise to New Guinea. If we examine more closely the distribution of animals in any extensive region, we find that different, though closely allied species, are often found on the opposite sides of any considerable barrier to their migration. Thus, on the two sides of the Andes and Rocky Mountains in America, almost all the mammalia, birds, and insects are of distinct species. To a less extent, the Alps and Pyrenees form a similar barrier, and even great rivers and river plains, as those of the Amazon and Ganges, separate more or less distinct groups of animals. Arms of the sea are still more effective, if they are permanent; a circumstance in some measure indicated by their depth. Thus islands far away from land almost always have very peculiar animals found nowhere else; as is strikingly the case in Madagascar and New Zealand, and to a less degree in the West India islands. But shallow straits, like the English Channel or the Straits of Malacca, are not found to have the same effect, the animals being nearly or quite identical on their opposite shores. A change of climate or a change of vegetation may form an equally effective barrier to migration. Many tropical and polar animals are pretty accurately limited by certain isothermal lines; and the limits of the great forests in most parts of the world strictly determine the ranges of many species.