INTRODUCTION j 



mentioned, their faunas were originally very distinct, they have now been to 

 some extent mingled, so that this method of treatment is not altogether 

 disadvantageous. 



Nest in order comes Africa and then Australasia ; notices of the animal life 

 of the shores and seas being intercalated between the accounts of the faunas of 

 Asia and America, the animals of the southern and eastern oceans being dealt with 

 in the concluding section. 



It should be added that species are regarded, as a rule, in a wide sense, so 

 that many of those named by modern naturalists on the evidence of slight 

 distinctions are ignored. 



The appearance or habits of the great majority of the animals mentioned are 

 described more or less briefly, but differences in the mode of treatment of the 

 various species have been considered advisable. Many of the better known repre- 

 sentatives receive, for instance, a very much greater share of space than is allotted 

 to those calculated to arrest the attention of the naturalist rather than of the 

 general reader; and vertebrates are treated more fully than invertebrates. But 

 even with regard to what may be called animals of general interest the treatment 

 is mainly dependent upon the importance of the animal from a distributional 

 point of view. The fallow deer, for example, is generally considered to be 

 an immigrant into central Europe from the south, and consequently receives less 

 full notice than the indigenous red deer and roe, which may be regarded as typical 

 and characteristic members of the central European fauna. A similar remark 

 will apply to the rabbit, which likewise appears to have been originally a 

 Mediterranean animal. Again, the red grouse, although an important member of 

 the British fauna, is but an insular representative of the Scandinavian willow- 

 grouse, and is therefore only incidentally referred to in connection with the 

 species of greater interest from a geographical standpoint. 



Whatever divisions of the land surface of the globe are adopted in a work of 

 this nature, a certain amount of repetition is inevitable, but this has been reduced 

 as much as possible. In the case of Europe it will be noticed that certain animals, 

 such as the brown bear, which formerly ranged over the greater part of the 

 Continent, are not mentioned among the fauna of the central area ; the reason 

 for this being that it seemed preferable to refer to them in the localities where 

 they still survive in the greatest numbers, or where they are alone found at the 

 present day. 



