THE LUSITANIAN FAUNA. 2QI 



know from fossil evidence that the former had a 

 much wider range in pleistocene times, being then 

 found in England, Belgium, and Germany. Ta!pa> 

 too, to which genus our common Mole belongs, 

 seems to be a West European genus, since it occurs 

 in French miocene deposits. However, it would be 

 difficult to name many more recent genera which could 

 be included in the area which I propose to investigate 

 in this chapter. The genus Lepus is probably not of 

 Lusitanian origin, but the sub-genus Oryctolagus to 

 which our common Rabbit belongs has no doubt had 

 its original home in that region. Only two species of 

 Lepus {Oryctolagus) are known, one of which Lepus 

 lacostei has been met with in French pliocene 

 deposits. The other is the Rabbit (L. cuniculus). 

 Though generally considered to have been intro- 

 duced into the British Islands, no reason can be 

 brought forward in favour of such a supposition, 

 especially as it is known to have spread into 

 Germany in pleistocene times from South-western 

 Europe. It occurs in France, the Spanish peninsula, 

 North-western Africa, and on some of the Mediter- 

 ranean islands. Its nearest living relatives, as we 

 should almost expect, are found in South America. 



Of the Lusitanian Birds I have already mentioned 

 the so-called Dartford Warbler {Melizophilus undatus\ 

 which ranges from the south of England to the 

 extreme south-west of Europe. A second species 

 occurs on the Balearic Islands and on Corsica, 

 Sardinia, and Sicily. The Andalusian Bush-quail 



