Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/725

Rh EUROPE 695 his northern sub-region, Mr Wallace names the thrushes, warblers, rudlings, tits, pipits, wagtails, buntings, house- sparrows, linnets ; and of the Mediterranean sub-region, the Luscineola, the Pyrophtkalma (Curruca melanocephala of Degland), and the BraJyptetus or bouscarle (Cettia of Degland) among the Sylviidze; Telcphonus among the shrikes ; Halcyon and Ccryle among the king-fishers ; the quail-like Turnix among the Galliurc ; and Gyps, Valtur, and Xeophron among tho vultures. The bearded vulture, or lammer-geier (Gypaetos barbatus), is the largest of European birds; it is found in gradually diminishing num bers in the French and Swiss Alps, the Ligurian moun tains, the Caucasus, and perhaps the Pyrenees. Vidtur moHochus or arrianus is common in Sardinia, the Pyrenees, and Bessarabia; Neophron percnopterus in France, Switzer land, Spain, Greece, and southern Russia. The golden eagle (Ayiiila ckrysaetus), which is the largest in Europe, builds equally among the rocks of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Grampians, and on the treeless steppes of Piussia. Next in size comes the imperial eagle, which belongs to the south of the continent ; and then follows a list of lesser eagles, hawks, buzzards, kites, &c., to the number of forty species more or less, the genus Falco alone being represented by eleven. The owl family, Strigidoe, counts ten species, noblest of which is Bubo majcimnf, the eagle-owl, or grand due of the French, almost rivalling the golden eagle in size ; it is found not only in the French mountains, but in Switz erland, Italy, Sicily, Bessarabia, and the Crimea. The passerine order is represented by a great variety of genera and speeies, many of which have a wide range, and are known by the most familiar names in all the countries of the continent. In direct economic importance the first place is held by the gallinaceous order, the Grallatores, and the Palmipedes, which furnish all the species that are distinguished as game, and a great many others that are largely used as food. A few of the smaller birds are thus appropriated in special districts : the lark, for example, is caught in great numbers in the neighbourhood of Halle and Leipsic, and the blackbird shares a similar fate in Corsica. 1 From its mountain-lakes to the surrounding ocean the waters of Europe are for the most part well stocked with fish. No complete summation has been made of the number of genera and species represented; but it is sug gestive of no small variety to learn that thirty-five species have been found in the lakes of Tyrol alone, lying between 2000 and 8000 feet above the level of the sea. A consider able proportion of the genera are cosmopolitan, and a still greater number range over wide areas outside of Europe. As peculiar to his &quot;European&quot; sub-region, Mr Wallace mentions two genera of the perch family the Aspro, and the Percarina of the Dniester. Among characteristic forms are the stickleback (Gasterosteus), found as far south as Italy; the pike (Esox), which ranges from Lapland to Turkey; the Silurus of the Swiss lakes and German rivers; and several members of the carp family or Cyprinidoe, including the carp proper (Cyprinus), the roach, tench, bream, bleak, ic. Of much more practical importance are the Salinonida% among which the salmon holds the first place. This noble fish is found in all the rivers of the Atlantic versant as far south as the Loire, and especially in Scotland, Norway, and Iceland it proves an abundant source of wealth. In southern Russia, where the river- fisheries attain a development unknown in any other part of Europe, its place is supplied by the sturgeon, the sterlet, and the sevruga, and economically at least by several species belonging to the perch family, which hold an im portant position in virtue of their abundance. The greatest 1 See also Fiitsch, Suturgc-schicfUe dcr V jycl nro2&amp;gt;as. sea fisheries of Europe are those of the Gernun Ocean, from which England, Scotland, Norway, Holland, and France have long reaped magnificent harvests, and in which Germany has more recently begun to share. The value of the sea fish exported from Britain, Norway, and Holland is about 4,000,000 per annum. It is needless to mention the names of the principal species herring, cod, &e.; and the conger-eels of the Channel islands, the pil chards of the Cornish coast, and the sardines of Franco are almost as familiarly known. In the Baltic there is great abundance of various smaller kinds of fish more par ticularly the sprat, the sardine, and several members of the perch family; and some of the Salmonidac! are of consider able economic importance. No less than 300,000 tons of sardines have been caught in a single year at the mouth of the Dwina, and the Esthonians may almost be said to subsist on a fish which they name the &quot; kilka.&quot; In the Mediterranean the tunny, the sardine, and the anchovy give existence to the most extensive fisheries, the first passing in enormous shoals from the straits of Gibraltar eastward to the Black Sea, and skirting in its passage the coasts of Sardinia, Naples, and Sicily. The people of Comacchio on the Adriatic, to the number of 5000, are supported by the capture of the mullet, the eel, and the &quot; acquadella,&quot; which enter their lagoons from the sea by a canal, and are prevented from returning by an ingenious system of sluices and water-gates. Among the minor animals of the European seas there are none except the oyster that have the commercial importance of the trepang of the Eastern archipelago; but several species of shell fish, urchins, and crustaceans are extensively consumed. Oyster-beds are found on most of the Atlantic coasts, and the artificial culture of the species has recently received a great development, especially in France and England: the produce of Cancale and Granville in the bay of St Michel, of Essex and Kent, of Ostend in Belgium, and Bohuslaii in Sweden are in high repute. The sponge and the coral fisheries of the Mediterranean are both vigorously pursued, the former with most success in the /Egean, and the latter on the coasts of Sardinia, Corsica, and Andalusia. 2 Though the reptiles as a class are represented by about Reptiles, forty genera, the species are for the most part inconspi cuous, and in no instance formidable. The three land tortoises are all confined to the south, and one of them has its only European habitat on the Caspian. There are as many fresh-water tortoises, but only one, Emys littaria, reaches as far north as Prussia. The turtle is principally caught in the Mediterranean ; the chameleon is peculiar to Spain ; the gecko and the Hemidadylus verruculatus are confined to the southern regions ; and the Phyllodactylus eitropccus has only been discovered in Sardinia. Stfllio vidgaris, very common in Greece, is the only member of the large family of the Iguanidoi that exists in Europe. On the other hand, there is a great variety of lizards (Lacertidae and Chalcidio), and several are of wide distribution. The Gongylus ocellatiis, or spotted skink, is found on the shores of the Mediterranean. A iiguis frayilis, or the slow-worm is familiar in all except the colder regions of the continent. No fewer than eighteen species of the genus Coluber are described, the largest being the Coluber elaphis, which not unfrequently exceeds 5 feet in length, and the most widely distributed the Coluber natrlx, or ringed snake, which does not exceed 4 feet The Coluber a-sadnpii gives its name to the German watering-place of Schlangenbad, or Snakes Bath. The Viperidae are much less prolific of species ; but the Ptlias bents, or common adder, is well- known in the most part of cerftral Europe. Of the frogs and toads there are eight genera : the genus Rana is repre- See Von SitiboUl, Die Siissu-asscrfoche von Mitteleuropa, 1863.