32 LECTURES 



part of Arabia, with Madagascar and the adjacent 

 islands. It may be popularly termed the African region. 



"III. The Oriental region, which is comparatively 

 small, including India and Ceylon, the Indo-Chinese 

 countries and southern China, and the Malay Archipel- 

 ago as far as the Phillipines, Borneo and Java. It may 

 be popularly called the South Asiatic or Indian region. 



"IV. The Australian Region, which is composed of 

 the remainder of the Malay Archipelago, Australia, New 

 Zealand, and all the tropical islands of the Pacific, as far 

 east as the Marquesas and the Low Archipelago. 



"V. The Neotropical Region, which" comprises the 

 whole of South America and the adjacent islands, the 

 West Indies or Antilles, and the tropical parts of Central 

 America and Mexico. It may be well called the South 

 American Region. 



"VI. The Nearctic Region, which consists of all tem- 

 perate and arctic North America, with Greenland, and is 

 thus well described as the North American Region." 



As it has just been defined, it will be seen that exten- 

 sive areas of the Palaearctic Region are under a high 

 state of cultivation and much of it is thickly populated. 

 In consequence ot these two facts extermination, in times 

 past, has been the fate of many of its mammalia, and this 

 process is at present going on more rapidly than ever. It 

 has thinned the ranks of animal life within the bounda- 

 ries of the region to such an extent that, notwithstanding 

 its extensiveness, it ranks at present below the smaller 

 old and new world regions of the tropics in the richness of 

 its mammalian fauna. Some of its forms, however, are 

 quite peculiar, while others are highly characteristic. 

 There are camels and a half-dozen different genera of 

 deer. A genus of dogs of the family Canidce occur, and a 

 great variety of the rodentia abound, as rats, mice, squir- 

 rels, hares, and their kind. Seven genera of rumi- 

 nants fall within the limits of this region; all of the fam- 

 ily Bomdce; and weasels and pandas are also characteristic. 

 Upon its northern coasts are found seals, and the land 

 carnivora are well represented in the wildcats, the 

 wolves, foxes and bears. In other parts wild horses and 

 asses exist, the latter being abundant in Asia. 



Passing to the Ethiopian Region, which includes in 

 the main Africa and the great island of Madagascar, we 

 are struck at once with the marked differences in its 

 mammalian fauna as compared with what we found in 

 the Palaearctic Region. Madagascar and the Mascarene 

 Islands are especially remarkable, and in the case of the 



