INTRODUCTION 



EVERYBODY knows that if he wants to shoot a 

 lion, he must go to Africa, and to India for a tiger. 

 The sportsman bent upon making a collection of 

 antlers, will find some kind of deer or other from 

 Spain through the whole length and width of Europe 

 and Asia, he may cross Behring Strait and again he 

 will meet stags from Alaska through the whole length 

 of the Americas down to Patagonia. Well may he 

 conclude that deer are cosmopolitan and yet he 

 would be mistaken, since with the exception of the 

 Fallow deer in Algeria there is not a single kind in 

 the whole of Africa. There on the other hand lives 

 an abundance of hollow-horned game, antelopes and 

 buffalo, none of which occur south of Mexico. He 

 may well ponder over these facts, especially as in the 

 Northern Hemisphere wild cattle, sheep, antelopes 

 and deer live in close proximity to each other. It is 

 common knowledge that before the Glacial epoch, 

 geologically not so very long ago, there lived in 

 England, elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hyaenas, 

 crocodiles and pelicans, all of which have since with- 

 drawn further south. To understand this does not 



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