b DPv. C. J. POESTTH ilAJOE OX THE 



and !N"earctic regions, but, so far as we know, are missing at present 

 in the EtHopian and Oriental regions. All the other Pliocene 

 genera now living are indigenous to the Ethiopian as well as the 

 Oriental region; but, if we inspect the species more closely, we 

 find "very few allied to African forms, but on the contrary their 

 analogies point towards the Oriental region. 



Pliocene mammals are to be found at the present time, but little 

 altered, in the most southern corner of Asia, and especially in the 

 Sunda Islands ; and there not only exists a general agreement 

 between the two groups, but also resemblances singularly special; 

 The peculiar Buffalo-Antelope of Celebes (Anoa dej^ressicornis), as 

 Eiitimeyer has pointed out, is but little changed in form from its 

 fossil representatiTe iii the Siwalik deposits ; " with but little 

 perceptible increase of height and weaker weapons, it repeats the 

 physiognomy of the Siwalik Hemihos, even to the details of the 

 foramina for vessels and nerves"*. 



Bos etruscus, according to the same author's investigations, is a 

 real Bihos, and with a few Siwalik forms is closely allied to the 

 Banting now living in Java. 



The majority of Pliocene Stags (Cervus Perrien, C. pardinensis, 

 C. etueriarum, C. Nestii, &c.) belong to the group of the Axis and 

 RvMa, which now live in Malacca and chiefly in the large Sunda 

 Islands. 



Amongst all the living wild Boars, Sus verrucosus from Java 

 (with S. celehensis) shows the greatest resemblance to the Pliocene 

 Sus giganteus (S. Strozzii). while Sus vittatus, indigenous to the 

 Oriental region, is not so closely allied to it. The Tapirs and 

 Ehinoceroses complete the manifestation of the great accordance 

 between the Pliocene mammals and those still living in south- 

 eastern Asia. 



This fact is aU the more surprising, because the above-mentioned 

 islands are situated in the tropics, whilst, chiefly from paleeophyto- 

 logical reasons, we are led to infer a warm climate, but in no way 

 a tropical climate, for our Pliocenes. 



But I refrain from drawing conclusions as to the Pliocene 

 climate from the comparison of the Indo-Malayan fauna with that 

 of our Pliocenes, and for the following reasons : — 



The facts of zoological distribution teach us that the agreement 

 in climate and in general conditions of life in two regions isolated 

 from each other does not imply an identity of faunas. In proof of 

 this, 'Wallace has brought examples from various parts of the worldf. 

 There are, however, extraordinary facts lying much nearer to us. 

 Corsica is not many miles distant from Italy, and the isolation of 

 the two is diminished by the islands in the Tuscan Archipelago. 

 The Corsican climate is similar to that in the region of the Tuscan 

 coast, and, notwithstanding this, Corsica shows in her mammals, 



* L. Eiitimeyer, "Beitrage zu einer palseontologiscben Geschichte der 

 Wiederfcauer, zunachst an Linnes Genus Bos'' in Verhandl. naturf. Gesellsch. 

 in Basel, iv. p. 299 (1865). 



t ' Island Life,' p. 5, &c. 



