THE ALPINE FAUNA. 313 



Goat (Haploceros montanus) also has certain affinities 

 with the Chamois. Besides the Alps, the latter 

 occurs in the Caucasus and the Pyrenees. The 

 Alpine Marmot (Arctomys mar motto) is sometimes 

 quoted as owing its origin to the Siberian pleistocene 

 migration, but it does not occur in Siberia now, nor 

 is there any palaeontological evidence that it was ever 

 found there. The genus Arctomys is an ancient 

 Asiatic genus, to judge from its general range. 

 Only two species occur in Europe, one of which, 

 the true Siberian Marmot (A. bobac\ just enters our 

 continent in the east or rather, it is one of those 

 species which came to us in pleistocene times and are 

 now gradually retreating towards their native land. 

 The genus, however, is probably not of Siberian 

 origin. No less than seven other species occur in 

 Asia, six of which are confined to Central Asia and 

 the Himalayan Mountains, while four have wandered 

 to North America. The sequence of events, therefore, 

 was that the ancestor of Arctomys marmotta probably 

 came to the Alps direct from Central Asia by way 

 of Asia Minor in miocene or pliocene times. It has 

 since become modified into a distinct species, and has 

 spread to the European plain, where it occurs fossil 

 in pleistocene strata, and to the Carpathian Moun- 

 tains and the Pyrenees. 



The great majority of species of the large genus 

 Microtus (Arvicola) are Asiatic, and there can be little 

 doubt that it has originated in that continent. There 

 is one species of Vole {Microtus nivalis) which occurs 



