64 GEOGKAPHICAL DISTKIBUTIOK. 



mediate position between the weasels and bears. To the same 

 family belong the South American coatis (Nasua) and the prehen- 

 sile-tailed kinkajou (Cercoleptes). The Mustelidse, or weasels, com- 

 prise the weasels proper, marten, ermine, mink, glutton, American 

 badger (Taxidea), skunk, American otter (Latax), and the singular 

 sea-otter (Enhydris), from the California coast. The most formi- 

 dable carnivores are the grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis), not im- 

 probably identical with the European brown-bear (U. arctos), and 

 the couguar, or American panther (Felis concolor), whose range 

 extends from the sixtieth parallel of north latitude to the southern 

 extremity of Patagonia. One species of implacental mammal the 

 Virginian opossum (Didelphis Virginianus) penetrates as far north 

 as the Canadian frontier. 



Taking the Nearctic and Palaearctic divisions of the Holarctic 

 region collectively i. e. , the region as a whole we find it to be 

 characterised by the exclusive, or almost exclusive, possession of 

 the following families: Talpidee (moles), Trichechidse (walruses), 

 Castoridse (beavers), and Lagomydse (pikas) ; and if the reindeer, 

 moose, and sheep and goats, be considered as distinct families, as 

 is maintained by many naturalists, then also by the Rangiferidae, 

 Alcidae, and Capridae. In addition to these seven families, we 

 have also the hares (Leporidae) and bears (Ursidae), which, though 

 not exclusively restricted to these regions, are by their numbers 

 and vast distribution, eminently characteristic of them. Of about 

 one hundred and twenty genera represented, upwards of seventy 

 (or sixty per cent.) are found in no other region. Among the most 

 characteristic forms are 



In the Old World : 



Talpa, the mole. Rupicapra, the chamois. 



Meles, the badger. Saiga, the saiga antelope. 



Camelus, the camel. Capra, the goat. 



Capreolus, the roe-deer. Myoxus, the dormouse. 



Moschus, the musk-deer. Myogale, the water-mole. 

 Poephaga, the yak. 



In the New World : 



Saccomys, | pouched- rats or Ovibos, the musk-ox. 

 Geomys, J gophers. Antilocapra, the prong-horn. 



