Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/726

Rh 696 EUROPE sented by the common and the escuient frog, the latter of which is absent only from the British Islands; the gonus Alytes by A. obstetricans, which sets the example of the curious human custom of the couvade ; and the genus Jfyla by H. virldis, or the common tree-frog, whose sten torian croak may ba heard in every country of the continent. The salamanders and newts are represented by five genera : the genus Triton contains seven species, of which Triton cristatus is most commonly distributed. They would bring the list of European reptiles to a close if it were not for the presence in the caves of Carinthia and Carniola of the famous Proteus anguinus, or olm of the Germans, whose history is one of the most curious of those elucidated by modern naturalists. 1 lusocls. Insects do not play so conspicuous and ostentatious a part in Europe as in some of the warmer regions of the globe ; it is only in special localities or exceptional ssasons that their destructive or irritating influence becomes formid able to man. There are not many towns like Fasano, where the inhabitants have in summer to leave their usual residences to the occupancy of flies ; and if the European horticulturist has a hard battle to fight with caterpillars, ear wigs, and wasps, he generally succeeds in gaining a fair crop after all. The mosquito and the tarantula are the most venom ous of those which attack the human species. The locust, which spreads such alarm in Africa and Asia, appears in western Europe only at intervals and in demoralized detach ments ; though in the south of France it is found worth while to offer a reward for the collection of the insects and their eggs. In Turkey, the Danubian principalities, and southern Russia it sometimes commits tremendous ravages ; and all efforts of the agricultural population are futile to check the. advance of the countless swarms. The year 1860 was unhappily distinguished by the severity of the attack. But if insects play an inconspicuous, they by no means play a small part in the European regions. In the northern sub-region, among the characteristic Lepidoptera, are Parnassius, Aporia, Leucophasia, Colias, Argynnis, Vanessa ; and of the Coleoptera, Carabida?, Staphyl inidce, and Curcidionidce are especially abundant. The Mediter ranean sub-region has two peculiar genera of butterflies Thais and Doritis, and Anthocharis and Zegis are charac teristic ; of the Coleoptera, Carabidoe, Copridce, Buprestida. , Cantharida 1, and Curculionidce are abundant. The three insects of greatest economic importance are the silk-moth, the bee, and the cantharis. The silk-worm, since its intro duction in the 6th century, has become an important object of cultivation in Italy, Turkey, Greece, France, Spain, and Portugal, and has even proved remunerative in Prussin, Bavaria, and central Russia; and recently a new species from Japan, which feeds on the oak and not on the mul berry, has been successfully reared in the Baltic provinces. Bee-keeping is an extensive industry in Italy, France, Switzerland, Russia, and Sweden ; and in Greece the tax on bees furnishes 1600 to the revenue. The cantharis is a native, not only of Spain, as its popular name of Spanish fly imports, but also of France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and South Russia, and even occurs in the south of EngTand. After the declaration of Mexican independence in 1820 the cultivation of the cochineal insect was introduced into the Spanish province of Granada with such success that no less than 801,915 ft of raw cochineal was exported to England in 1850. The present generation has seen two very unwelcome additions to the number of European in sectsthe Phylloxera vastatrix and Doryphorus decem- lineata or Coloradojbeetle, of which the former has com- T Na, tur ^hichte der Saugethierc Devtschland* und der fW L&amp;lt;Mlde ^^ Clermcnt, Gmde to the quadrupeds and pletcly ruined a large proportion of the French vineyards and the latter has threatened to play similar havoc with the potato crop. The horse holds the first place among the domestic Do animals of Europe, and in no other region has it developed ani a greater variety of type. Whether the present species is of European origin has not been quite decided; but remains of a similar form occur in the Pliocene and Pleistocene strata, and it is evident that the prehistoric peoples set the example of that hippophagy which scar city of animal food has again introduced into Europe. Now at least there are no wild horses on the continent, though they are mentioned as late as the 8th century in a letter of Pope Gregory to Boniface. 2 Horse-breeding is a highly important industry in almost all countries, and in several, as Russia, France, Hungary, and Spain, the state gives it exceptional support. Those which have the greatest export trade are Russia, Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Ger many, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The Hungarians are a specially horse-loving people, counting in 1871 no fewer than 14L horses to the thousand inhabitants, instead of 67 as in Austria. Almost every district of the con tinent has a breed of its own : Russia reckons those of the Bashkirs, the Calmucks, the Don-Cossacks, the Estho- nians, and the Finlanders as among its best; France sets store by those of Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, Limousin, and Auvergne; Germany by those of Hanover, Oldenburg, and Mecklenburg, which indeed rank among the most powerful in the world; and Great Britain by those of Suffolk and Clydesdale. The English racers are famous throughout the world, and Iceland and the Shetland Islands are well known for their hardy breed of diminu tive ponies. The ass and the mule are most abundant in the southern parts of the continent, more especially in Spain and Italj-. In the one country they number about 2,320,000, and in the other about 1,000,000. The camel is not popularly considered a European animal; but it is reared in Russia in the provinces of Orenburg, Astrakhan, and Taurid, in Turkey on the Lower Danube, and in Spain at Madrid and Cadiz ; and it has even been introduced into Tuscany. One of the strangest sights of southern Russia to a traveller from the west is the huge ungainly creature yoked to what is practically a toy cart. A much more important beast of burden in eastern and southern Europe is the ox: the long lines of slow- moving w r ains in Roumania, for example, are not unlike what one would expect in Cape Colony. In western Europe it is mainly used for the plough or fattened for its flesh. The Netherlands, Denmark, Servia, Roumania, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Sweden, Spain, and Germany are all exporters of cattle; and all the other countries are more or less engaged in cattle-breeding for their own demands. It is estimated that there are about 100 distinct local varieties or breeds in Europe, and within the last hundred years an enormous advance has been made in the development and specialization of the finer types. The cows of Switzerland and of Guernsey may be taken as the two extremes in point of size, and the &quot; Durhams&quot; and &quot; Devonshires&quot; of England as examples of the results of human supervision and control. The Dutch breed ranks very high in the production of inilki The buffalo is frequent in tLe south of Europe, more especially in Transylvania and Italy; in the former country the number is about 58,000, and in the latter about 40,000. Great attention is given to dairy-farming in Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, and part of Italy. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, and Finland are exporters of cheese or 2 Elehn, CuU.urpjlnmen und Hansthiere, 187!