little difcoveries we made, are confined to the Atlantic ocean; and
o f the remaining orders we no where found any thing new.
I. N U M B E R .
T he whole number o f fpecies in the greater claffes o f animals,
■ viz. quadrupeds, cetacea, amphibia, birds, and filh, which we
faw in the South-Sea, according to the above enumeration, amounts
to'between 260 and 270, of which about one third are well known.
L e t us allow, that this number comprehends two thirds o f the animals
o f thofe claffes, actually refiding in the South-Sea, though
we have reafon to think, that the fauna is much more extenfive, we
lhall have upwards.of 400; and fuppofing the'.claffes o f infedts and
vermes to g iv e only 150 fpecies, the whole fauna o f th e . South-Sea
ifles will confilt o f at lead: £5o Ipecies., aprodigious number indeed,
when compared with that o f the Flora.
I I . S T A T I O NV
T hough many of the birds in New-Zeeland areremarkable for the
gay colors of their plumage; yet we found, when we came to Nor-
folk-Ifland, (which, as I have obferved in my account o f the plants,
contains exactly .the fame ..fpecies) that the fame birds appeared there
arrayed in far more vivid and burning tints, which mull; prove, that
4he climate has a oonfiderable influence on colours. There is alfo a
lpecies:df king-filher common to all the South-Sea ifles, of which a n i m a l
thetropical varieties are much brighter than that of New-Zeeland. 1 ' “ DOM
Th e plumage of bird's is likèwife adapted to the. climate in another
relpedt.;-. for thofe. o f ' warm countries have a moderate, covering,
whilft thofe of the cold parts o f the world, and fuch efpecially,. as
are continually Ikimming over, the fea,. have, an immenfe quantity of
feathers, each o f which is double-; arrd the pinguins, which almoft.
conftantly live in thé Water,, have their. Ihort, oblong feathers' lying
as clofe above each other as the fcales o f fiihes, being at the fame
time furnilhed with a thick coat o f fat,, by which they are enabled
to refill the co ld : the cafe is the fame with the feals, the geefe,
and aH lotfrec Southernaqjiatic animals- Th e land birds,.both within
and without the tropics; build their nelts- in trees; except only
the common quail, which lives in New-Zeeland,-and has all. the
manners o f the European one- O f the water-fowl, fome make
their nefts on the ground, fuch as the grallse, which breed only in
pairs ; whillt feveral fpecies o f lhags,. (f decant') live gregarious in
trees,, and others in crevices of rocks; and fome petrels (frocettarice)
by thoula.nds together, burrow in holes under-ground clofe . by
each other, where they educate their young, and to which they
retire every night. The moll prolific Ipecies in. the South Sea, are
die ducks, which hatch feveral;eggs atone brood, and though the
lhags, penguins, and petrels, do not.hatch more than:one or two;