MOUNTAIN FAUNAS 79 



haunts streams and feeds upon aquatic insects and 

 their larvae, tadpoles, and small fish ; the desman 

 {Myogale pyrenaica) of the Pyrenees inhabits the banks 

 of streams in that moimtain range, and spends a con- 

 siderable part of its time in the water ; the Tibetan 

 mole-shrew {Uropsilus soricipes) is a small cursorial 

 animal, seeming to be intermediate between moles and 

 shrews. The insectivores are, however, losers in the 

 battle of life, and there is nothing remarkable in the 

 fact that peculiar forms are found in mountain ranges, 

 when we remember the shifts the members of the group 

 have been put to in order to survive in a world where 

 the mammals as a whole have better developed brains 

 and greater differentiation of structure than they can 

 boast of. 



Carnivores, as we have seen, are not very abundant. 

 The forms which inhabit the neighbouring regions — 

 forest or steppe — ^may extend also into the mountain 

 regions, but peculiar forms are not numerous, the bear 

 alliance being that with most mountain representatives. 



Of the cats the most characteristically mountain 

 form is the ounce or snow leopard {Felis uncia, Fig. 12), 

 a beautiful animal with very thick fur, greyish above, 

 with black spots, and pure white below. In Ladak it 

 is said to ascend as high as 18,000 feet in summer time, 

 and not to descend lower than 9,000 feet in winter. It 

 attacks wild goats and sheep, and also rodents, but its 

 habits are not well known. In the New World the 

 puma {Felis concolor, Fig. 26), though not specifically a 

 mountain animal, attains a considerable height in 

 the Rocky Mountains, and is stated to prey upon the 

 Bighorn sheep. 



Of other cat-like carnivores extending into moun- 

 tainous regions, we may note that the lynx of the 



