462 TEMPERATE LAND LIFE. 



isia.ii and north of the Himalayas, and the northern half of China and 

 Japan. This vast region, though distinguishable into warmer tem- 

 perate and colder temperate portions, is essentially one province, char- 

 acterised by the life ranging through it from the Pacific to the Atlantic 

 Ocean. Most of the familiar animals of Europe range through 

 Northern Asia ; and although the distribution of wild animals has been 

 much modified by man, the evidences of ancient distribution which 

 are furnished by the valley gravels of the north of Europe, enable us 

 to recognise a community between the North African life and the 

 European life which man has exterminated. Among the more familiar 

 mammals in this region may be named horses, asses, sheep, goats, 

 camels, the fallow deer, red deer, roebuck, ibex, chamois, addax ante- 

 lope, saiga antelope, hedgehog, mole, shrews, water shrew, desman, 

 vole, mole-rat, beaver, squirrel, and hare, with occasional monkeys, 

 flying foxes, bears, and the hyrax. There are 107 genera of mam- 

 mals in the region, 36 of which are peculiar to it. The Mediterranean 

 province includes 60 genera, the Manchurian province 65 genera, 

 while 50 genera are common to the two distant regions. Eighty 

 genera occur in the warm temperate portion, 50 in the cold temperate 

 portion ; 1 5 are universally distributed. The only family of birds 

 peculiar to the province is that represented by the bearded titmouse. 

 Of the 323 genera of birds, 128 are common to the Neartic region, 

 and 51 genera are common to the Indian and Ethiopian regions. 

 Thirty-seven genera are peculiar to the region, which may be grouped 

 as warblers, babblers, fly-catchers, finches, buntings, starlings, crows, 

 woodpeckers, sand-grouse, grouse, pheasants, duck, crane, plover, and 

 snipe. The reptiles and amphibia include vipers, the giant salamander, 

 the land salamander and proteus ; while among fresh- water fishes there 

 are salmon, trout, carp, pike, perch, sturgeon, and lampreys. 



The Nearctic Region. As compared with the corresponding region 

 of the Old World, it is found that, while there is a similar richness in 

 the cold temperate region, the warm temperate region of North 

 America is poorer in life, in harmony with its smaller geographical 

 extent. It contains a total of 72 genera of mammals, of which 

 23 are peculiar to the region. But the correspondence between the 

 Palaearctic and Nearctic regions is found chiefly in the north tem- 

 perate parts, and is indicated by such animals as dog, wolf, wolverine, 

 sable, weasel, otter, bear, seal, deer, sheep, bison, shrew, squirrel, 

 vole, hare ; while the characteristic genera include urocyon, the 

 skunks, cariacus, mazama, antilocapra, scalops, scapanus, neosorex, 

 blarina, cynomys, haplodon, zapus, geomys. Only one family of birds, 

 the chamyaeidae, is peculiar. The Nearctic birds include 330 genera, 

 of which 24 are peculiar to the region, among which are gulls, ducks, 

 snipe, woodpeckers, pigeons, falcons, crows, &c. Among the reptiles 

 is the salt-water terrapin and the genus kinosternon, though some 

 species range to Central America, and include the alligator, terrapin, 

 chelydra, the platypeltis of Fitzinger, and the Mississippi alligator. 

 Among fishes there are fewer cyprinoids than in the Palaearctic region. 

 Sticklebacks are as numerous as in Europe, and the pike is well repre- 



