140 THE NEOG^IC REALM. [CHAP. 



connection as may have existed between North and South 

 America was of a very incomplete and transitory nature ; and that 

 before the end of the Miocene there was never any route in this 

 direction by which mammals passed from the one continent to the 

 other. 



In this connection it may be mentioned that Dr Hart Merriam l 

 has proposed to unite Central America with the West Indies to 

 form a separate zoological region the Tropical of equal rank 

 with the Sonoran ; but however much may be urged in favour of 

 this view, the multiplication of regions is much to be deprecated. 



The practical or entire absence of non-volant native mammals, 

 both recent and fossil, from all the other South 



Other Islands. . .....,- . . 



American islands, with the exception of 1 icrra del 

 Fuego and the Falklands, properly excludes their consideration 

 from this volume, although it is almost essential that a few words 

 should be said with regard to the Galapagos group, more especially 

 since conflicting views have been expressed concerning their rela- 

 tions to the mainland. In respect to Tierra del Fuego and some 

 of the adjacent islets, these may really be regarded as a part of 

 the continent, since the main dividing channel is extremely 

 narrow, and species like the guanaco are common both to the 

 islands and the mainland. And although the Falkland Islands 

 lie about 350 miles to the eastward of southern Patagonia, yet 

 they are separated by a comparatively shallow sea (less than a 

 hundred fathoms in depth), and it is thus evident that they were 

 connected at no very distant date with the mainland. Of the two 

 indigenous mammals, the most remarkable is the Falkland Island 

 wolf (Cam's antarcticus], which differs markedly from all the Canidce 

 of the mainland, and is apparently closely allied to the North 

 American coyote (C. latrans). The other is a species of groove- 

 toothed mouse (Rhithrodon). With regard to Fernando Noronha, 

 the poverty of its fauna induces Mr Beddard 2 to class it among 

 oceanic islands, although there is some affinity between its fauna 

 and flora and those of South America and the West Indies. 



Of far more interest are the Galapagos islands, situated on the 

 equator, at a distance of about five hundred miles westward of the 



1 Appendix, No. 19, p. 33. 



2 Ibid. No. 5, pp. 190, 207. 



