CHAPTER VII 



THE PAL^EARCTIC REGION 



(Plate VII., p. 196) 



Section I. — Boundaries of the Pal^earctic Region 



This, the last of the six great Regions, consists, as its name 

 implies, of the whole northern part of the Old World. 

 Its boundaries have already been denned in previous 

 articles dealing with the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions, 

 these being the only Regions with which it marches. 

 Speaking generally, it may be said to consist of the whole 

 of Europe, the northern border of Africa, and Asia north of 

 the Himalayas. Its southern boundary in Africa was taken, 

 in the article on Ethiopia, as the Tropic of Cancer, but 

 this, of course, is a purely arbitrary line, and runs through 

 the centre of the Sahara Desert. It would, perhaps, be 

 more accurate to put in its place the northern edge of the 

 Sahara as the limit, and to include all the desert country 

 both of Africa and Arabia in the Ethiopian Region. 



The question of Egypt is a difficult one, as its fauna 

 undoubtedly contains a mixture of forms characteristic of 

 both the Palsearctic and Ethiopian Regions ; on the whole, 

 however, Egypt, up to the First Cataract, is best included 

 in the Palaearctic Region. 



In regard to the boundary line between the Paleearctic 

 and Oriental Regions, there can be no doubt that at the 

 higher elevations of the Himalayas a true Palsearctic fauna 



177 M 



