ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALIA IN EUROPE. 217 
specialized Carnivora. In the United States it still main- 
tains its ground in many districts from which the agile puma 
and the resourceful wolf have long been banished. In South 
America it is still to be found in its restricted habitat, while 
the once widely-diffused jaguar, the powerful and ferocious 
monster which commanded so much respect from Humboldt 
and Azara, and which, not so long ago, interrupted the 
researches of our own Darwin, has already become so rare 
that such an authority as Heck, the Director of the Zoolo- 
gical Gardens at Berlin, has declared his suspicion that a 
full-grown example no longer exists in a state of freedom. 
Besides, it must not be forgotten that two of the most for- 
midable of the Felide, the Lion and Leopard, inhabited Europe 
within historic times, probably as recently as the beginning 
of the Christian era. 
In the following sketch of the geographical distribution of 
the wild mammals of Europe, special notice is given to the 
history of a few of the most important species during the 
present century. 
The first three Orders do not demand particular attention. 
If the occurrence of Macacus inwus, the solitary representa- 
tive of the Primates in Europe, be not an accidental circum- 
stance, the preservation of the species to the present day 
unquestionably is; and there is no historical evidence that 
its habitat was ever extended north of the rock of Gibraltar. 
In consequence of favourable climatic conditions, the 
Europasian sub-region is comparatively rich in Chiroptera, 
but on account of their nocturnal habits, their general simi- 
larity in external appearance, and their peculiar powers of 
locomotion, the exact definition of the geographical range of 
the members of this Order cannot be given. The bats, how- 
ever, are, in the Old World at least, of all predatory animals 
at once the most useful and the least injurious to man; and 
since there is no demand for their capture, it is probable that 
they have suffered comparatively little from the various effects 
of civilization. 
The Znsectivora are also well distributed over Europe. The 
animals which comprise this little Order are surpassed only 
by the bats in point of economic utility, but the services 
which they render to the forester and the agriculturist are 
