54 Dr. A. Nehring—Fauna of the Loess in Central Europe. 
Every zoologist knows that the Jerboas (Dipodide) are charac- 
teristic animals of the Steppes, and that especially Alactaga jaculus 
is a species characteristic of the Steppes of South-east Hurope, 
South-west Siberia, and Central Asia. 
Almost all species of the genus Spermophilus are also true natives 
of Steppes; those species, whose remains were imbedded in the 
diluvium of Central Europe, and particularly in the deposits of the 
Loess period, are identical with several species existing at present 
in the Steppes situated between the Volga and Upper Obi. 
That Arctomys bobac is an animal peculiar to the Huropean and 
Asiatic Steppes, Mr. Howorth cannot dispute; I remark that all 
species of Marmots (as Arctomys marmota, A. mona, etc.) shun the 
forests. 
Lagomys pusillus inhabits at present the Steppes between the 
Volga and the Upper Obi; also the other species of Lagomys live 
either in Steppes (Lag. ogotona) or in rocky forestless mountains 
(Lag. alpinus, Lag. nepalensis, Lag. princeps, etc.). 
The species of the genus Arvicola are generally considered by all 
zoogeographers to be inhabitants of open forestless regions; they 
appear most numerously in the real Steppes. Some species, it is 
true, live at present in Central—and even in West—LHurope, but 
mostly in such districts, in which man, by extensive agriculture, has 
destroyed the woods and has produced Steppe-like tracts. 
That wild horses are inhabitants of the Steppes, and that even the 
domesticated horses best thrive and increase in open Steppe-like 
districts. Mr. Howorth cannot deny. 
After having stated the above-mentioned hypothesis concerning 
the former Steppe-like character of the neighbourhood of Westeregeln, 
I could readily suppose not only this small district, but also a con- 
siderable part of Germany or Central Europe to have had a Steppe- 
like vegetation, and have been inhabited by Steppe-animals during 
the Post-Glacial period. For it seemed to me eatremely improbable 
that a small district of some few square miles only could have shown 
a characteristic Steppe-fauna within great and abundant forests.’ 
I therefore continued my researches not only at Westeregeln, but 
extended them, animated by Baron Richthofen, Rud. Virchow, 
Hauchecorne, Beyrich, and other authorities of German science, as 
far as possible. J made excavations in many places, as in Thiede, 
near Wolfenbiittel, in the Seveckenberg, near Quedlinburg, in 
several caves of the Franconian Jura (between Nirnberg and 
Baireuth), and in other places.* I visited many public and private 
collections in Germany, which contain Pleistocene fossils. I deter- — 
mined many thousands of fossil bones, which were sent to me for 
examination,’ and J followed up the discoveries in other countries by 
corresponding with all those interested in and pursuing this branch 
of palzontological inquiry. 
1 See my essay in the ‘‘ Gaea,’’ 1877, p. 222. 
* Mr. Howorth and every one can examine my collections of fossil bones, which 
are preserved in the Zoological Museum of the Roy. Acad. for Agriculture at Berlin. 
3 Cf. Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1881, p. 97 ss. 
