76 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



les), and capuchins. The Neotropical Carnivora embrace a number 

 of larger and minor cats, the most formidable of which are the 

 jaguar and couguar (puma), the former ranging from the pampas 

 of the Argentine Republic to Texas, and the latter, as has already 

 been observed, from Patagonia to about the sixtieth parallel of north 

 latitude in Canada. Among the lesser animals of this family are the 

 jaguarundi, ocelot, and other so-called tiger-cats. Of the weasels, 

 there are no representatives of the genera Mustela or Putorius over 

 the greater part of the region. The Canidae are represented by 

 various forms of wild-dogs (Icticyon, Lycalopex, Pseudalopex), 

 which are principally confined to the open grass-country ; the wolf 

 and fox are both absent, except from certain portions of Mexico, 

 which ought, perhaps, more properly to be relegated to the inter- 

 mediate tract which separates this from the Holarctic region. The 

 only member of the Ursidae found in the entire continent of South 

 America (with Central America) is the "spectacled" bear (Ursus 

 ornatus), from the Chilian and Peruvian Andes, which, through 

 certain peculiarities of structure, has been separated by some au- 

 thors from the true bears (Ursus), and placed in a distinct group, 

 Tremarctos. Among the distinctive rodents, other than the cavies 

 and agouties, are the subungulate capybara and paca, and the 

 beaver-like coypu (Myopotamus). A negative feature is the almost 

 total absence of Insectivora. The hoofed animals (Ungulata) are 

 but very sparingly represented in the Neotropical realm, a circum- 

 stance in marked contrast to what is presented by the similarly- 

 situated Ethiopian or African region. The antelopes, so char- 

 acteristic of the warmer parts of both the African and Asiatic 

 continents, are completely wanting, and there aFe likewise neither 

 indigenous horses, oxen, sheep, nor goats. A comparatively lim- 

 ited number of species of deer are scattered throughout the region, 

 from Mexico to the Rio Negro in Patagonia. Of other even-toed 

 ungulates (Artiodactyla) we have the peccaries (Dicotyles), the 

 American representatives of the Old World family of swine (Suidas), 

 whose range extends to the Red River, in Arkansas, and conse- 

 quently considerably beyond the limits of the region ; and the 

 llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuna, together constituting the genus 

 Auchenia, which are the New World representatives of the camel 

 family (Camelidae). It is a most striking fact in the distribution 

 of this family of ruminants, that the only two genera of which it 



