yS GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE 



Altogether the enonnous progress in the complexity of the 

 Ijrain iVoiu the early Tertiary mammals ilown to the present, is 

 one of the most remarkable revelations of palaeontology. It 

 goes perhaps some way in explaining the remarkable diversity 

 in mode of life exhibited by tlie mammals as compared, for 

 example, with the birds, whose brains have not diverged so much 

 or in so many directions from the primitive form. 



The present Distribution of the Mammalia. — In the follow- 

 ing pages some of the principal facts in the geographical range 

 of the orders, families, and many of the genera of Mammalia 

 will be given. It has lieen jvistly observed by Mr. Sclater 

 that the ha1)itat of an animal is as mnch a part of its 

 definition as is its structure or external form. No systematic 

 account of the Mammalia would therefore be complete without 

 such geographical facts. But that branch of zoology which 

 is concerned with the past and present distribution of animals 

 is wider in scope than this. Zoogeography deals not only 

 with the actual facts in the range of animals, ])ut with the 

 inferences as to past changes in the relations of land and sea 

 which the facts seem to indicate, and witli speculations as to 

 the place of origin of the different groups, of which more than 

 liints are sometimes given by their past and present distribution. 

 In addition to this, the earth can be mapped out into provinces 

 and regions which are definable Ijy their animal inhabitants. 

 In tlie present volume, dealing only with the Mammalia, it will 

 be obviously impossible to enter fully into the entire subject 

 of zoogeography. All that will be attempted is a luief general 

 survey of the science so far as it can be illustrated b}' the 

 Mammalia. For fuller knowledge the reader is referred to the 

 treatises mentioned below. ^ 



There are certain facts in the distribution of animals which 

 are commonplaces of knowledge, but which may be set forth 

 with definiteness. Everybody knows that an animal has a given 

 range : Elephants, for example, are found in India and certain 

 adjacent parts of Asia, and again in Africa ; the Eliinoceroses 

 liave roughly the same range ; the Tiger is limited to Asia ; the 



^ Wallace, The Geograijhical Distrilnifion of Animals, 1876. Heilprin, Tlie 

 Distribution of Animals, Inteniat. Scientific Series, 1887. Beddard, A Text-book 

 of Zoogeography, Cambridge Natural Science Manuals, 1895. Lydekker, Geographi- 

 cal History of Mammals, Cambridge Geographical Series, 1896. W. L. and P. L. 

 Sclater, The Geograj^hy of Mammals, Kegan Paul and Co. 1899. 



