Central American Biology

Abstract

TWENTY years ago the Natural History of Central America was almost unknown to us. With the exception of a few stray papers in periodicals—most of them of ancient date—the student had no means of becoming acquainted with the many rich and rare forms of life which are found in that part of the Neotropical Region. Mexican and Central American specimens were scarcely found in our museums, and were looked upon as the greatest rarities. Within recent years all this has been changed. Naturalists and collectors have ransacked every part of the Central-American Isthmus, from the frontiers of the United States down to the Panama Railway, and though, no doubt, much remains to be done, the fauna and flora of this district are perhaps, on the whole, better explored than those of any other part of the region to which they belong.

Biologia Centrali-Americana; or, Contributions to the Knowledge of the Fauna and Flora of Mexico and Central America.

Edited by F. Duncane Godman Osbert Salvin. 4to. Zoology, Parts 1 and 2, 1879. Botany, Parts I and 2, 1879. (London, 1879, published for the Editors by R. H. Porter, 10, Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, W.)