6o6 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



faunas of the two areas was much more intmiate than it is now."* 

 Why the giraffe, hippopotamus and other Ethiopian types died out 

 altogether in the Oriental region we do not know. 



4. HoLARCTic Region. — The Holarctic region cor- 

 responds to North America, Europe, Northern Africa and 

 all Asia not included in the Oriental. This vast area 

 appears to have sufficient community of fauna to comprise 

 one region. It has characteristically large numbers of 

 Bovidce^ especially sheep, goats and oxen, the deer, camels 

 and pigs being also present {Dasses occur in Syria). Of 

 rodents, the squirrels, beavers, Muridce^ picas, rabbits and 

 hares. In the Carnivora there are abundance of bears and 

 Mustelidce (weasels, polecats, martens, wolverenes, otters, 

 skunks and badgers), whilst the Felidce are poorly repre- 

 sented by the lynxes and other forms, as also are the civet- 

 family by mongooses and genets, the Canidce by wolves and 

 foxes. Of the Insectivora, the moles, hedgehogs and shrews 

 are all common, and in bats only the Microchiroptera are 

 found, except for those inhabiting the Pyramids. The only 

 Primates are the baboons of Gibraltar. 



There is hence a marked absence of a great number of 

 large Ungulates, Carnivora^ and of the Edentata^ lemurs 

 and monkeys, in comparison with the other regions. Two 

 typical families of rodents, the beaverst and picas, are 

 confined to the region, and the camels are not found else- 

 where in Arctogoea. The walruses [Trichechidce) are also 

 peculiar to the region. The moles and shrews are very 

 characteristic and are found only to a small extent outside 

 the region. 



At first sight it appears anomalous to separate Africa and 

 Madagascar into regions and to unite Eurasia and North 

 America into one region, but the large number of identical 

 or closely allied species occurring in these two continents 

 compel us to adopt such a classification. 



As regards the past history of the region we have already referred to 

 the widely scattered Mesozoic Polyprotodontia and to the lemurs of a 

 later date. But as late as the Pleistocene epoch the mammals of the 

 Holarctic region resembled those of the Ethiopian and Oriental far more 

 nearly than at the present day. For example, there are well-authenti- 

 cated remains from the Pleistocene of Europe, of the macaque monkeys, 



* Lyddeker. Geo. History of Mammals, page 288. 

 t Also found in Sonoran. 



