III.] UNGULATES. 73 



Mexico to Peru and Brazil; while the two species of the genus 

 Bassariscus are inhabitants of the southern United States, Mexico, 

 and Central America. From the Tertiaries of Catamarca and 

 Parana there has been described the extinct genus Cyonasua, 

 differing from the c.oatis in the form of its teeth ; this genus 

 showing that the family had obtained an entrance into South 

 America as early as the Pliocene period, although it is quite 

 unknown in the Santa Cruz epoch. In the Mustelidce. where all 

 reference to the cosmopolitan otters, of which there is one Brazilian 

 species, may be omitted the southern skunks (Conepatus], which 

 have mostly but thirty-two teeth, are now practically character- 

 istic of this realm although the common species ranges into 

 Texas and their remains occur fossil in the caverns of Brazil. 

 The true skunks (Mephitis), on the other hand, which have 

 thirty-four teeth, are North American, although one species 

 ranges as far south as Guatemala ; and since the whole group is 

 unknown in the earlier Tertiary deposits of the Argentine, it may 

 likewise be considered a recent immigrant from the north. The 

 same is true of the genus (Galictis) now represented by the 

 South American grison and tayra, since remains of this group of 

 mustelines occur in the Plistocene of the United States, as well 

 as in the Brazilian caves. 



Of far more importance than either of the preceding orders 

 are the hoofed mammals or ungulates, since here we 

 meet with certainly three, and probably four extinct 

 subordinal groups exclusively confined to this realm, while a large 

 number of the existing families are unrepresented even in the 

 Pampean formation. Whereas this order is entirely absent from the 

 West India Islands, South America at the present day is singularly 

 poor in ungulates. The only existing forms are the peccaries 

 (Dicotyles), which are peculiar to the New World; certain deer 

 belonging to a genus ( Cariacus) which is likewise confined to the 

 western hemisphere, and a Chilian form constituting a genus 

 (Pudud] by itself; the exclusively South American guanacos and 

 vicunas, which, together with their domesticated allies constitute 

 the genus Lama; and tapirs (Tapirus). The first three of these 

 belonging to the Artiodactyla, while the last alone represents the 

 Perissodactyla, or odd-toed division of the order. At all periods 



