444 



ANIMAL STUDIES 



these has been imagined by Haeckel and others. No 

 creature of this character is yet known, but that it may 

 have once existed is not impossible. To this region be- 

 long the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus, 

 as well as the lion, tiger, leopard, giraffe, the wild asses, 

 and horses of various species, besides a large number of 

 ruminant animals not found in other parts of the world. 

 It is, in fact, in its lower mammals and reptiles that its 

 most striking distinctive characters are found. In its fish 

 fauna it has very much in common with South America. 



The Lemurian realm comprises Madagascar alone. It is 

 an isolated division of the Indo- African realm, but the pres- 

 ence of many spe- 

 cies of lemur and 

 an unspecialized or 

 primitive type of 

 lemur is held to 

 justify its recogni- 

 tion as a distinct 

 realm. In most 

 other groups of 

 animals the fauna 

 of Madagascar .is 

 essentially that of 

 neighboring parts 

 of Africa. 



The Patagonian 

 realm includes the 

 south temperate 

 zone of South Amer- 

 ica. It has much 

 in common with the 

 neotropical realm from which its fauna is mainly derived, 

 but the presence of frost is a barrier which vast numbers 

 of species can not cross. Beyond the Patagonian realm 

 lies the Antarctic continent. The scanty fauna of this 



FIG. 258. A lemur (Lemur varius). 



