w 



136 



THE TWO-TOED ARTIODACTYLA. 



is excellent. To catch the animals one must 

 always resort to a kind of chase ; they are as 

 obstinate as mules, and when separated from 

 the herd throw themselves down on the 

 ground. Their colour varies like that of the 

 llama, which is always a sign of domestica- 

 tion. As beasts of burden they are not used 

 at all. 



The Vicuna (Auchetiia viamd) is found 

 only at the height of 1 3,000 feet and upwards 



on the Cordilleras of Ecuador, Peru, and 

 Bolivia. This species is the smallest and the 

 slenderest. A remarkably fine and highly 

 esteemed woolly fleece covers the animal like 

 a sheep. Head, neck, rump, and thighs are 

 of a reddish-brown colour, the other parts are 

 white. The animals live like wild goats or 

 sheep, like these too are agile and good 

 climbers, and they are eagerly hunted on 

 account of their wool and very palatable flesh. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND DESCENT OF THE 



EVEN-TOED UNGULATES. 



The geographical distribution of the even- 

 toed ungulates presents two peculiarities to 

 which we have already had occasion to call 

 attention, namely, on the one hand cases of 

 very restricted localization, and on the other 

 hand cases in which the range is extraor- 

 dinarily wide. 



The hippopotamuses are entirely confined 

 to the African continent, where their domain is 

 constantly getting more and more restricted. 

 The small species has been found in the 

 republic of Liberia, the large still existed in 

 historical times in the Lower Nile (in Egypt) 

 as well as in the streams of the Cape region, 

 whence it has entirely disappeared. It is 

 still abundant and wide-spread in the interior 

 of Africa. In the Quaternary period hippo- 

 potamuses even existed throughout Central 

 Europe and extended to England. 



The Hog family has two entirely distinct 

 territories. The Peccaries are characteristic 

 in South America, and range as far north 

 as Texas. Before the introduction of the 

 domestic pig the hog-type was wholly un- 

 represented in the north of America. The 

 Wart-hogs and the River-hogs are exclusively 

 African types. The Babirussa is confined 

 to the islands of Celebes and Buru, accor- 

 dingly to the confines of the Indo-Malayan 



and Australian regions. The true Pigs are 

 distributed over the whole of the Eurasian 

 continent, as well as over the Mediterranean 

 region, which was formerly separated from 

 the African continent, and over the islands of 

 Asia as far as Japan and New Guinea. Per- 

 haps there are also members of the group in 

 Central Africa, but hitherto the evidences 

 adduced in favour of this view are not quite 

 convincing. 



The Tragulida have a highly peculiar dis- 

 tribution. The genus Hyaemoschus, resem- 

 bling the pigs, is found only in West Africa, 

 while the true Chevrotains exist only in 

 India up to the foot of the Himalayas, and 

 on the Sunda Islands. 



The Musk-deer inhabits Central Asia. Its 

 limits are the Himalaya Mountains, the moun- 

 tains of Siam and Tibet in the south, and the 

 Altai Mountains and the banks of the Amur 

 in the north. 



The Deer family is distributed over the 

 whole earth, with the exception of the greater 

 part of Africa and the whole of Australia, 

 from which great island the placental mam- 

 mals generally are almost entirely excluded. 

 With the exception of some northern species, 

 such as the elk, the reindeer, and the stag, 

 all the American species are different from 



