70 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



polar-hare in the snow-bound ice in latitude 83 10', and the antlers 

 of a reindeer were picked up by the officers under Sir George Nares, 

 in latitude 82 45' (Grinnell Land). A skeleton of the latter ani- 

 mal, recently picked by wolves, was also obtained in latitude 80 

 27'. Traces of the rock-ptarmigan (Lagopus rupestris) have been 

 met with as far north as latitude 83 6', and the snow-bunting (Plec- 

 trophanes nivalis) in latitude 82 33'. The reptile-fauna is very 

 limited, no serpent, apparently, passing beyond the sixty-seventh 

 parallel of latitude, and no lizard above the seventieth. The fishes, 

 which include the common perch and pike, are mainly Salmonoids. 

 Insects are fairly numerous, and even in the far north the number 

 of species is considerable. Sir George Nares obtained no less than 

 forty-five species, representing nearly all the orders (including Lepi- 

 doptera) in Grinnell Land ; Greenland has thus far yielded eighty 

 species, and Iceland three hundred. Among the most northerly 

 genera of non-marine mollusks are Helix, Pupa, Succinea, Limnsea, 

 and Planorbis. 



2. The European Sub-Region, which includes practically the wiiolc 

 of Europe lying between the Arctic tract and the Alpine system of 

 mountains, extending southeastward and eastward to the Caucasus 

 and the Caspian steppes. The fauna of this region is typically 

 that of temperate Eurasia, taken as a whole, and therefore requires 

 no elaborate analysis. Among its more or less characteristic Mam- 

 malia are the moose or elk (in the north), stag, roe, aurochs (Bison 

 Europseus, in the Caucasus and the forests of Lithuania), the Alpine 

 chamois and ibex (with the accompanying marmot, Arctornys mar- 

 motta), brown bear (Ursus arctos), badger, glutton, dormouse, 

 hamster (Cricetus frumentarius), mole (Talpa Europasa), and hedge- 

 hog (Erinaceus Europseus), many of which also form integral parts 

 of the Arctic and Central Asian faunas. The birds comprise sev- 

 eral hundred species, of which Germany alone possesses nearly three 

 hundred; distinctive types are, however, not numerous indeed, 

 they may be said to be almost wholly wanting and even the num- 

 ber of restricted forms is very limited. Among these may be men- 

 tioned a number of song-birds of the finch tribe, as the chaffinch 

 (Fringilla coelebs), siskin (F. spinus), goldfinch (F. carduelis), bull- 

 finch (Pyrrhula rubricilla), yellow-hammer (Emberiza citrinella), 

 and linnet (Linota linaria), and the nightingale (Luscinia). The 

 most distinctive bird of prey is the bearded vulture of the Alps, or 



