The learned Count Buffon laid down and wished to establish the four following propositions: 1st, that of the animals common to the old and new continents, the breed is larger in the former than in the latter; 2d, that the animals indigenous to the new are less than those of the old hemisphere; 3d, that the species of domestic animals which have been transplanted from Europe, have degenerated in America; 4th, that this part of the earth furnishes but few races of animals peculiar to itself. But the inaccuracy of these propositions has been demonstrated by the illustrious President Jefferson[45] in comparative tables of the existing animals on both continents. This, however, seems to be certain, that, as animals depend for their support on the productions of the vegetable kingdom, their number and growth will be in proportion to the luxuriance of vegetation; and therefore, there being in the one hemisphere as well as in the other very extensive plains covered with abundant pastures, and likewise poor and sterile regions that yield little or no nutriment, either hemisphere will exceed the other in the size, number, and beauty of its animals, wherever it happens to exceed the other in the fertility and extent of its woods and meadows.
Peru is by no means well fitted to maintain the numerous species of indigenous animals which inhabit the forests of North America, nor calculated for the multiplication of those which may be transplanted from Europe, to that prodigious extent which is observed on the broad plains and exuberant pastures of Chile and Parana. Still, however, this country, in its coast, its mountain ranges, and Montaña, comprises upon the whole a vast and beautiful variety, with which the pages of natural history will be one day enriched; but it is only our object at present to offer observations on some of the most remarkable of these, as they appear to be influenced by our climate.
INDIGENOUS QUADRUPEDS.
Of the families of quadrupeds found in Peru at the period of its discovery and conquest, the following are the chief.
Paco.[46]—Camelus Peruvianus, Linn. Syst. Nat.;—Molina, Histor. de Chile, Part I.
Alco.—Canis Americanus, Linn.; Kiltho,—Thegua, Mol.
Puma.—Felis puma, Linn.; Pagi, Mol.
Uturuncu.—Felis onsa, Linn.; Felis gigna, Molin.—is found in the west of Peru; and by the same name is designated the yaguar of Azara, plate IX. which inhabits the woods and thickets on the eastern side of the country.