(7/5. This is the
geographical division followed by Lichtenstein, Swainson, Erichson,
and Richardson. The section from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, given by
Humboldt in the "Polit. Essay on Kingdom of N. Spain" will show how
immense a barrier the Mexican table-land forms. Dr. Richardson, in
his admirable "Report on the Zoology of N. America" read before the
British Association 1836 page 157, talking of the identification of
a Mexican animal with the Synetheres prehensilis, says, "We do not
know with what propriety, but if correct, it is, if not a solitary
instance, at least very nearly so, of a rodent animal being common
to North and South America.") Some few species alone have passed
the barrier, and may be considered as wanderers from the south,
such as the puma, opossum, kinkajou, and peccari. South America is
characterised by possessing many peculiar gnawers, a family of
monkeys, the llama, peccari, tapir, opossums, and, especially,
several genera of Edentata, the order which includes the sloths,
ant-eaters, and armadilloes. North America, on the other hand, is
characterised (putting on one side a few wandering species) by
numerous peculiar gnawers, and by four genera (the ox, sheep, goat,
and antelope) of hollow-horned ruminants, of which great division
South America is not known to possess a single species.
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