14 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



been disputed, a great amount of similarity between the 

 Nearctic and Pabearctic faunas, but not enough to justify 

 the junction of these two great land-masses into one 

 " Region " or " Realm." 



As for the so-called " Arctic realm," which consists of 

 the land bordering the Polar Ocean and Hudson's Bay and 

 the great peninsula of Greenland, " beyond the limit of 

 arboreal vegetation," together with the similar Arctic por- 

 tion of the old world, Mr. Allen states, no doubt correctly, 

 that it contains a "homogeneous hyperborean fauna of 

 circum-polar distribution." But looking to the extreme 

 poverty of life in these inclement latitudes, as Mr. Allen 

 well puts it, it seems to be quite unnecessary to elevate 

 this wretched fraction of the Earth's surface into one of 

 its principal constituent life-regions. The plan adopted by 

 Mr. Wallace, of regarding it as a borderlaDd between the 

 Nearctic and Palsearctic Regions is far preferable. 



The question of the recognition of Madagascar and New 

 Zealand as independent regions will be further discussed in 

 the articles on the Ethiopian and Australian Regions respec- 

 tively, as will also the propriety of dividing the Neotropical 

 into two separate regions. A few words, however, may be 

 said here with regard to Mr. Allen's proposal to join together 

 the Oriental and Ethiopian Regions into one " Realm." 



According to the estimate given below (Table I., p. 16), 

 the total number of genera found in the Oriental Region 

 is 113, and of these thirty-nine are not found elsewhere. 

 Of the balance — seventy-four — eight only are common to 

 the Oriental and Ethiopian Regions, and are not found in 

 any other Region, 1 whereas twenty-eight more, also known 



1 These are Manis, Rhinoceros, Elephas, Oolunda, Atherura, Viverra, 

 Mellivora, and Nycteris. 



