126 THE WANDERINGS OF ANIMALS [CH. 



not reach America until the Pleistocene. Moreover 

 some of the chief families, and still more the smaller 

 groups, are restricted in their range, which means 

 that even these well-flying creatures consider not 

 only oceans, but narrow seas as obstacles. 



The Pteropodidae or flying foxes, strict vege- 

 tarians, inhabit all the warmer countries of the Old 

 World, from Africa to India, Australia and Tahiti, 

 but not New Zealand. 



The Rhinolophidae or leaf-nosed bats, e.g. our 

 horse-shoe bats, are also restricted to the Old World. 



The Phyllostomidae or vampires are tropical 

 American, including Antilles. Of them only Desmo- 

 dm and Diphylla are true blood-suckers, but not the 

 genus Vampyrus ! North America proper possesses 

 only members of the quite cosmopolitan family 

 Vespertilionidae. 



Carnivores. 



This large order of almost 300 recent kinds is 

 cosmopolitan, excepting New Zealand, many small 

 oceanic islands and Australia but for the solitary 

 Dingo. 



The Carnivores are undoubtedly of northern, 

 holarctic, origin, but their centre of evolution was 

 soon shifted to Eurasia. During the Pliocene none 

 persisted in North America but dogs, coons and 

 skunks. Bears and true cats have entered that 



