IX.] EASTERN DIVISION. 321 



under consideration are the two species of desman (Myogale), 

 which are aquatic insectivores, with long trunk-like snouts, some- 

 what intermediate between the shrews and the moles. Of the two 

 living species, the smaller is confined to the region of the Pyrenees, 

 extending as far north as the Department of the Landes, while 

 the other is now restricted to south-eastern Russia, although its 

 fossilised remains have been discovered in the Plistocene Forest- 

 bed of the east of England. Extinct species occur in the Mio- 

 cene and upper Oligocene of the Continent. A slate-coloured 

 insectivore, with the external form of a shrew but the skull of a 

 mole, inhabiting Eastern Tibet, constitutes the genus Uropsilus ; 

 and the more mole-like creature known as Scaptonyx is likewise 

 from the same locality. In any case, these two animals only just 

 enter the border of the region, so that they cannot be regarded as 

 characteristic Holarctic types ; and, indeed, the Moupin district 

 of Eastern Tibet is included by Dr Wallace in the Oriental region, 

 although it is assigned by others to the Holarctic. Although two 

 species occur to the south of the Himalaya, the true moles (Talpa) 

 are very characteristic of the eastern Holarctic region, the common 

 species ranging from England to Japan, and dating from the epoch 

 of the Norfolk Forest-bed; while fossil species, some of which 

 have been separated as Protalpa, range through the Tertiaries of 

 Europe to the epoch of the upper Oligocene. By some writers 

 Talpa moschata of Eastern Tibet is distinguished as Scaptochirns. 



Among the Carnivora the widely spread Old World genera 

 Genetta, Herpestes, and Hyczna enter the Mediterranean sub-region, 

 but are unknown elsewhere in the Holarctic area at the present 

 day. The Ursidce include a most remarkable generic type known 

 as ALluropus, represented by the parti-coloured bear of Tibet, in 

 which the cheek-teeth present a decided approximation to the 

 extinct Hytznarctus and also resemble those of the panda 

 (jElurus). This genus is another of the border-forms between the 

 Holarctic and Oriental regions. On the other hand, the badgers 

 (Meles) are very characteristic of the area under consideration, 

 ranging from England through the rest of Europe to Japan and 

 China, where one species enters the Oriental region, being found 

 as far south as Hongkong. Remains of extinct badgers occur 

 in the lower Pliocene of Persia. 



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