Near die and Pahvardic Regions. 59 



upon which he hestowed tlie name Xearcfic, in contradistinction 

 to the correspondina; part of Eurasia, which he named PaUeardic, 

 lieheving the two to be distinct primary regions. 



AVallace. the great chain})ion of Sclater's Pahearctic and 

 Xearctic regions, says of the former in his most recent work on 

 geographic distribution : ''Taking first the mammalia, we find 

 this region is distinguished b}' its possession of the entire family 

 of Tdlpidce or ]\[oles, consisting of 8 genera and 16 sjiecies, all of 

 which are confined to it except one which is found in Northwest 

 America, and two which extend to Assam and Formosa." (Island 

 Life, 1^80, 41.) How he could have made such an erroneous 

 statement is hard to understand, in view of the well-known fact 

 that three genera of moles inhabit eastern North America and 

 two the Pacific coast region ; and it is the more strange since on 

 another page of the same Avork he states that there are tiiree 

 peculiar genera of molas in North America.* 



He states further : "Among carnivorous animals the lynxes 

 (9 species) and the Imdgers (2 species) are peculiar to it [the 

 Palfficrctic region] in the old world, while in the new the lynxes 

 are found only in the colder regions of North America " (Island 

 Life, 1880. 41), thus implying that there are no badgers in North 

 America, and ignoring the i)resence of lynxes all along the south- 

 ern border of the United States from Florida and Texas to south- 

 ern California. Continuing, he mentions a number of groups 

 which, he says, " have only a few species elsewhere." Among 

 these are the '' voles, dormice, and pikas." Pikas inhal)it tlic 

 mountains of western Canada and range south in the Cascades 

 and High Sierra to southern California, and in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains to Colorado. They have been reported also from the high 

 mountains of Lower California in Mexico. The group of voles 

 or ArriroUmc, exclusive of the lemmings, is represented in Boreal 

 North America Ijy not less than 4 genera, 5 subgenera, and nearly 

 •')(» s[)ecies. It is only fair to add, however, that some of these 

 have been described since Wallace's Ijook was written 



" The Nearctic region is so similar to the Pakearctic in position 



*Iii his earlier work lie says: ^^Coiidi/lnm (1 species), the star-nosed 

 iiinlf. iniial)its eastern North America from Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania ; 

 tSca/mium (2 si)t^('ies) ranLres across from New York to San Francisi-o ; ,SV7(- 

 lops (o species), the shrew moles, ran;j;e from Mexico to the (jreat Lakes. 

 * * * UrotrichuH is a shrew-like mole which inha])its .Tajjan, and a 

 second species has been discovered in the mountains of Britisli Cohim- 

 bia." (Geog. Dist. of Animals, II, 187(), 190.) 



