178 



LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



is much richer than the southern continent, where, indeed, 

 all the hoofed animals are the descendants of comparatively 

 recent immigrants from the north and none are truly autoch- 

 thonous. Members of three different artiodactyl suborders 

 occur in the Neotropical region; the peccaries (Tagassu) 

 extend through Central and South America to Paraguay, 



Fig. 99. — Vicuna {Lama vicunia). — By permission of the N.Y. Zoolog. Soc. 



though also entering the Sonoran region in Texas. Most 

 interesting are the members of the camel family, which are 

 very distinct from the true Camel of Asia. Tierra del Fuego 

 and the Patagonian plains support great herds of the Guanaco 

 {Lama huanacus), which extends along the Andes to Ecuador 

 and Peru, where it is associated with the Vicuna {L. vicunia), 

 a smaller and more slenderly built species. The Vicuna does 

 not range south of Bolivia. Just as the mountain systems of 

 North America carry the Boreal and Transition faunas through 

 nearly the whole breadth of the Sonoran region, so the high 



