438 LAND ANIMALS 



of various insects, especially beetles, and leaf-feeding insects of various 

 sorts of the shrub and tree strata. The larva of one of these, Papilio 

 ajax, a butterfly, is monophagous, feeding on the leaves of the pawpaw, 

 a shrub or low tree with tropical affinities. 



In the restricted South American deciduous forests the antarctic 

 beech is the principal tree. The forest is damp, and much moss covers 

 the forest floor. Darwin's fox, the pudu (a dwarf deer), woodpeckers, 

 some Coleoptera, and the tiny Darwin's frog, Rhinoderma darwini, 

 are interesting or important residents. This small frog has the habit 

 of cramming the fertilized eggs into the vocal sacs of the male which 

 become greatly distended during the breeding season. Transformation 

 takes place in situ, and the tiny but fully developed frog hops forth 

 from his father's mouth. 50 



The European deciduous forests have been much under the influ- 

 ence of man, and even where they have been left intact in extensive 

 stands, they are by no means primeval on account of having been 

 long held as hunting preserves and by reason of the practice of scien- 

 tific forestry. In England in olden times bears and wolves were present ; 

 wild cattle hid their young in coverts and grazed in the open. 51 The 

 animal life apparently approached that in similar regions in America. 

 The wild boar, absent in America, ranges the forests of Europe and 

 Asia. 



The tiger is found in the forests of birches which prevail in southern 

 Siberia. Its absence in Ceylon and Borneo is evidence that it has only 

 recently crossed the Himalayas into the tropical regions in which it is 

 now so much at home. A monkey, Simla speciosa, lives in temperate 

 deciduous forests of Japan. 



As the forests are cleared by man, only the forest margin animals 

 remain in the scattered groves and fence rows; of these the burrowing 

 forms are most likely to persist. The climate that produces the de- 

 ciduous forest is a stimulating one for the white man; the soil is 

 suitable for varied crops, and the climate is favorable for both northern 

 and southern types of domestic animals. In fact, this region in Amer- 

 ica now supports more cattle and sheep per square mile than are 

 found in the semi-arid regions where they are more conspicuous. 52 



Animal communities of coniferous forests. — The evergreen 

 coniferous forests extend as a broad belt between the tundra to the 

 north and the temperate deciduous forests to the south, throughout the 

 northern land mass. There are southern extensions along the mountains 

 and regions determined by soil or moisture in other sections, as in the 

 southeastern United States.' The present account will deal with the 

 geographically extensive world belt, known as the northern conif- 



