324 THE HOLARCTIC REGION. [CHAP. 



Among the artiodactyle ungulates there are six genera, either 

 entirely or mainly confined to the eastern Holarctic region. Of 

 these, the true goats that is to say, the members of the genus 

 Capra, as distinct from the Oriental and Arabian Hemitragus are 

 almost exclusively Holarctic, although C. walie inhabits the 

 Abyssinian highlands, and C. siniatica, of Palestine and upper 

 Egypt, may also enter the confines of the Ethiopian region. All 

 the goats, it may be observed, are essentially mountain-dwelling 

 animals, and the occurrence of the same species of ibex (C. 

 sibiricd) in both the Altai and Himalaya is a clear proof of the 

 former prevalence of colder conditions, as without these the ani- 

 mal could not have passed from the one range to the other. The 

 sheep also in spite of the existence of outlying North American 

 species, and a variety of one Central Asian form (Ovis vignei] 

 which enters the north-western confines of India are mainly cha- 

 racteristic of the area under consideration, attaining their great- 

 est numerical development, and also their maximum size, in the 

 highlands of Central Asia. The range of the genus includes almost 

 the whole of the eastern Holarctic region, the mouflon (O. musimon) 

 inhabiting the Corsican islands, and the aberrant arui (O. tragela- 

 phus] being found in northern Africa. It is possible that fossil 

 sheep occur in the Indian Siwaliks (where remains of a goat allied 

 to the Himalayan markhor are also met with), and a large species 

 is definitely known from the Norfolk Forest-bed. The next on 

 our list is the remarkable goat-like antelope from the hills to the 

 north of the Assam known as the takin (Budorcas], which is allied 

 to the Oriental Nemorhczdus, and is therefore probably an immi- 

 grant into the region from the southward. Allied to this group is 

 the chamois, or gemse (Rupicapra), now confined to the higher 

 mountain-ranges of Europe from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus, 

 but which during the Plistocene epoch ranged over many of the 

 lowlands. Among the true antelopes, the addax (Addax], an ally 

 of the oryx group, is an exclusively Mediterranean type, inhabiting 

 North Africa and Syria, where there are also representatives of 

 other genera which are typically Ethiopian. More thoroughly 

 Holarctic are the two peculiar but allied genera Saiga and Panthol- 

 ops, each represented by a single living species. The saiga is now 

 confined to the steppes of western Asia and Eastern Europe, but 



