INTRODUCTION. xiii 
As regards the Primates, we find that the five peculiar species all belong to well-known 
Neotropical genera, and in every case have closely allied species in South America. 
From the peculiar Chiroptera it is not perhaps so easy to derive such a very decisive 
conclusion. But casting aside the three Vesperugines, as giving little test of locality, we 
see at once that the remaining six peculiar species are in every case members of 
Neotropical genera. Ischnoglossa, it is true, has not yet been found south of Panama; 
but it belongs to the purely Neotropical family of Phyllostomatide. 
On the other hand, when we pass to the Insectivora, the presence of five peculiar 
Mammals of the Order in Central America is by no means a proof of Neotropical 
tendencies, the absence of Insectivora being one of the cardinal characteristics of the 
Neotropical Region. It may be remarked, however, that these five little Mammals 
belong to the two widely diffused genera Sorex and Blarina, which have nothing 
specially Palearctic in their distribution, and that, as will be seen on reference to 
Table I., but one of these five species is found south of Guatemala. 
§ 
The three autochthonous Carnivores of Central America belong to three types peculiar 
to the New World. Bassaris is perhaps, as regards its present distribution, rather 
Nearctic in its tendencies, and Bassaricyon rather Neotropical. Mephitis is rather 
a Nearctic form, replaced by Conepatus in the south of the American continent. 
Of the Ungulates the two Tapirs are essentially Neotropical, or, at any rate, show no 
connexion with North America, while the Deer belongs to a type. generally diffused in 
the New World. 
Next, as regards the Rodents, of which universally numerous group no less than 21 
Central-American species have not as yet been recorded as existing elsewhere. Of these 
it may suffice to say that Spermophilus, Neotoma, and Arvicola are decidedly of northern 
aspect, whilst Synetheres and Dasyprocta are as surely evidences of southern affinities. 
The family Geomyide, to which four of the remaining species belong, is, it must be 
acknowledged, rather Nearctic than Neotropical. 
Lastly, the single peculiar Edentate belongs to an order characteristic of the Neo- 
tropical Region. 
But we must not judge the whole character of a fauna solely from its autochthonous 
