The domesticated animals that are so numerously reared in every part of Europe have probably been, in most cases, derived from indigenous species. The urus or wild ox has been the parent of the common ox, and the wild boar of the domestic pig; the goat, and, in the extreme north, the reindeer, are also native to the European soil. The moufflon of Sardinia was perhaps the ancestor of at least some of our breeds of sheep. The birds of Europe display a greater number and variety of species than its land animals. This is especially the case in regard to the family of aquatic birds--always most numerous in the higher latitudes. More than thirty species of the duck tribe alone belong to Northern Europe, some of them being common to the corresponding latitudes of Asia and the New World. The stork and the crane (both of migratory habits) belong to the maritime regions of Western Europe; the pelican, the spoonbill, and the scarlet flamingo, to the shores of the Mediterranean. Europe has fewer species (as well as fewer individuals) of the reptile kind than either of the other divisions of the globe--a happy exemption, which is due to its temperate climate. The only venomous serpents found in Europe are three species of viper, all of them confined to its southern shores: the common viper of middle and Northern Europe is innocuous. Lizards are common in the south, as many as sixty-three species being enumerated. The waters of Europe exhibit a rich variety of fish, a vast number of them useful as to the food of man. Each of its inland seas has its own peculiar tribes, the Mediterranean basin displaying the richest diversity. Among the inhabitants of the Mediterranean are several sharks, swordfish, dolphins, and six species of tunny--the last-mentioned the largest of edible fish. The anchovy is peculiar to the Mediterranean. The seas that lie around the British Islands abound in the gregarious tribes of edible fish, as the cod, turbot, mackerel, herring, pilchard, and many others. The stromming of the Baltic is of like utility. The salmon frequents the estuaries and river-mouths throughout the coast-line of Western Europe to the northward of the Bay of Biscay, becoming more numerous as higher latitudes are reached. The generally temperate climate of Europe secures it, for the most part, an exemption from the dense swarms of insect-life that belong to warmer latitudes. Yet between eight or nine thousand species are enumerated as native to the British Islands alone. The common honey-bee is distributed all over southern and Central Europe, and is probably indigenous. The locust is only an occasional visitor to its shores, and belongs to the other side of the Mediterranean. The silkworm was introduced from China toward the close of the Fifth Century of our era.