chap, x.] THE PAL.EARCTIC REGION. 219 



worms, and leeches ; it swims well, and remains long under 

 water, raising the tip of the snout, where the nostrils are 

 situated, to the surface when it wants to breathe. It is thus 

 well concealed ; and this may be one use of the development 

 of the long snout, as well as serving to follow worms into 

 their holes in the soft earth. This species is confined to the 

 rivers Volga and Don in Southern Eussia, and the only other 

 species known inhabits some of the valleys on the north side 

 of the Pyrenees. In the distance are wolves, a characteristic 

 feature of these wastes. 



Birds. — But few genera of birds are absolutely restricted to 

 this sub-region. Podoces, a curious form of starling, is the most 

 decidedly so ; Mycerobas and Pyrrhospiza are genera of finches 

 confined to Thibet and the snowy Himalayas ; Leucosticte, another 

 genus of finches, is confined to the eastern half of the sub- 

 region and North America ; Tetraogallus, a large kind of 

 partridge, ranges west to the Caucasus; Syrrhaptcs, a form of 

 sand-grouse, and Leriva (snow-partridge), are almost confined 

 here, only extending into the next sub-region ; as do Grandalo, 

 and Calliope, genera of warblers, Uragus, a finch allied to the 

 North American cardinals, and Crossoptilon, a remarkable group 

 of pheasants. 



Almost all the genera of central and northern Europe are 

 found here, and give quite a European character to the ornitho- 

 logy, though a considerable number of the species are different. 

 There are a few Oriental forms, such as Abrornis and Larvivora 

 (warblers) ; with Ceriornis and Ithaginis, genera of pheasants, 

 which reach the snow-line in the Himalayas and thus just enter 

 this sub-region, but as they do not penetrate farther north, they 

 hardly serve to modify the exclusively Palsearctic character of 

 its ornithology. 



According to Middendorf, the extreme northern Asiatic birds 

 are the Alpine ptarmigan [Lagopus mutus); the snow-bunting 

 (Plectrophanes nivalis) ; the raven, the gyrfalcon and the snowy- 

 owl. Those which are characteristic of the barren " tundras," 

 but which do not range so far north as the preceding are, — the 

 willow-grouse (Lagopus albus); the Lapland-bunting (Plectrophanes 



