FAUNA OF AMERICA — CLARK 299 



It is in the western Amazonian region and the eastern Ancles that 

 animal life is most highly diversified. The lowlands are curious 

 in lacking the herds of large herbivorous mammals so characteristic 

 of Europe, Asia, North America, and especially Africa. There are 

 no grazing mammals, and the terrestrial browsers are represented 

 only by a few small deer. The place of the hoofed animals is taken 

 iby a great variety of rodents, as it is in Australia by kangaroos. 

 Except in the northwest, bears and insectivores are absent. The place 

 of arboreal insectivores is taken chiefly by marmosets, and that of 

 terrestrial insectivores, as in Australia, by opossums and mice. 



Unique among living mammals and confined to tropical America 

 are the three types of sloths; the uncommon terrestrial giant ant- 

 eater 4 feet long, the smaller terrestrial anteater, and the arboreal 

 anteaters ; and the various armadillos ranging in size from the little 

 woolly armadillo {C hlamydophorus) 5 inches long to the rare giant 

 armadillo (Priodontes) 3 feet long. Exclusively tropical American 

 except for one species in southern North xVmerica are the opossums, 

 varying from the size of a mouse to that of a large cat. One has 

 webbed feet and is aquatic. Quite a different type of marsupial is 

 Caeiwlestes of Ecuador and adjacent Colombia related to the Aus- 

 tralian phalangers. 



The American monkeys, especially numerous in Brazil, are quite 

 different from the Old World monkeys. They are less diversified 

 and smaller. Some have prehensile tails. The chief types are the 

 spider monkeys, woolly monkeys, sapajous, and the sluggish howlers, 

 largest of American monkeys with a stupendous voice; sakis, short- 

 tailed monkeys, night monkeys with enormous eyes, squirrel monkeys, 

 and marmosets, smallest of monkeys — some smaller than a rat. One 

 of the howlers is curious in having the males black, the females 

 straw yellow. 



Very characteristic of South America are the four camels, the 

 guanaco, vicuiia, llama, and alpaca, the two last known only as domestic 

 animals. As a group they range from the extreme south to, in the 

 Andes, Peru and Ecuador. Nearly as characteristic as the camels 

 are the two tapirs, one in the forests and lowlands of Brazil and 

 Paraguay, the other in the Andes. These are related to another in 

 the Malay region, Sumatra, and Borneo. 



Largest of the American cats, with a body length of about 4 to 5 

 feet, is the jaguar, thick-set, powerful, and dangerous, which ranges 

 from Patagonia to Texas. Nearly as large, but with longer limbs, 

 not so heavy, and generally tawny in color without distinctive mark- 

 ings, is the puma, found from Tierra del Fuego to latitude 60° N. 

 in Canada. There are various smaller cats, some handsomely spotted 

 or striped, others plain, but no lynxes. 



