GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS 1547 



of burden, and is trained to draw the sledges over the 

 vast plains of ice and snow. 



Numerous fur-bearing animals occur in Siberia, 

 including the bear, glutton, badger, wolf, fox, lynx, 

 pole-cat, weasel, ermine, marten, otter, sable, squir- 

 rel, beaver, hare, and the reindeer: many of these 

 belong also to the northern regions of Europe. The 

 quadrumana are found in the south and southeast of 

 the continent and the islands of the Malay archi- 

 pelago ; the largest and most remarkable among them 

 the orang-outang is restricted to the Malayan 

 peninsula and the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. 

 The gibbons (or long-armed apes) belong exclu- 

 sively to Asia, and abound in its southeastern parts. 

 Bats are more numerous in the islands of the Asiatic 

 archipelago than on the continent. 



Asia is less rich in variety of birds than in quad- 

 rupeds, but (with the exception of the turkey, which 

 is a native of the New World, and of the guinea- 

 fowl, which is African) all our domestic poultry 

 came originally from this division of the globe. 

 Among ats birds of prey are eagles, vultures, falcons, 

 owls, and hawks; but although individually abun- 

 dant, the species of these are not numerous. Song- 

 birds are numerous in western Asia, but are com- 

 paratively scarce in the eastern division of the con- 

 tinent, where, however (especially among the islands 

 of the Malay archipelago and in China), birds of 

 beautiful plumage abound. The peacock is a native 

 of India, the golden pheasants belong to China, and 

 the birds of paradise to New Guinea and the ad- 

 jacent islands. 



