368 Reviews—Dr. Rk. F. Scharff’?s European Animals, 
In order to substantiate the grounds for our ‘ grievance,’ we select 
and discuss a certain number of the author’s illustrations which are to 
the point. Of the deaver it is stated (pp. 57-58) that, whilst now 
practically extinct i Western Europe, it is still plentiful in Russia 
and throughout Siberia. ‘‘ We have here an example of an animal 
which evidently spread westward from the east. since it has never 
been found fossil in either Ireland, Italy, or Spain, where we should 
expect it to occur if it had originated in the west.” About Ireland 
Dr. Scharff knows best. As regards Spain, it is dangerous to draw 
inferences from negative evidence in a country where so little is 
known of the Pleistocene fauna. With respect to Italy, no country 
of the world has yielded remains of beavers from so many different 
geological horizons as that country. ‘They occur in the peat (Varese 
and elsewhere), in the interglacial lgnites of Lecce, m the older 
Pleistocene of Arezzo, and lastly at least one species is known from 
the Upper Phocene of the Val d’Arno. The latter is different 
specifically from the recent species, and the form from Arezzo has 
also been assigned to a distinct species. All are so nearly related 
that they were probably evolved from each other. 
Our conclusions with regard to the distribution, past and present, 
of the mole (Zalpa europea) mentioned on the same page (p. 58) are 
very similar to that of the beaver. It would require pages to enter 
fully into the particulars of the case. The conclusions of the author 
are based in these instances upon incomplete and erroneous premises. 
What he says about the present distribution of the European mole is 
equivalent to stating that it has migrated from a region where it does 
not exist, and never existed for all we know, to one where it 
has existed since Pleistocene times. It appears to have escaped the 
author’s observation that the mole of the Caucasian regions is 
different from the European; the Altai mole is still more dissimilar. 
On the other hand, nearly related forms are known from Southern 
Europe. As in the case of the beaver, we know the mole from 
European Pleistocene deposits, remains of a distinct species are 
known from the Pleistocene of Sardinia, and remains of Tertiary 
species have been found in various parts of Kurope. There is therefore 
sufficient evidence to justify the assumption that Zulpa curopea has 
been evolved in Europe. 
In the fauna of the Spanish Peninsula ‘‘ we have evidence of the 
existence of a very ancient endemic element’? (p. 105). There is 
a North African fauna, too, in South Spain which is more recent than 
the endemic Lusitanian fauna. ‘‘The Lusitanian area was invaded by 
a North African fauna’’ (ib.), which itself is of old date, for ‘‘ the 
African forms came to Spain in Miocene times.” 
It has hitherto been assumed—and in our opinion rightly—that 
the Spanish Peninsula owes the archaic elements of its fauna and 
flora to long isolation, a condition which must have rendered this 
region particularly unsuited to the réle assigned to it on p. 100, of 
having been ‘‘a centre for distribution of species.’ 
As regards the African forms in the recent Mammalian fauna of 
Spain, our knowledge of them, both in Spain and North Africa, is 
still imperfect. But this much may be asserted, when the author 
