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INTRODUCTION. 



xlix 



they feed, and are restricted in range to those districts where the food most fitted for 

 them is to be found ; the only limit of the range of the carnivora is to be found in that of 

 the animals upon which they prey. 1 Thus, the tiger preys upon buffaloes, deer, and the 

 herbivores peculiar to each district, throughout the length and breadth of India. On the 

 shores of the Sea of Aral it is the scourge of the horses of the nomad Tartars, and in the 

 district of the Altai it preys upon the wild boars, and further north upon the reindeer ; and 

 yet specifically it is the same, the markings on the skin of that of the Aral being of the 

 same character as that of India. 2 The fox is another example of the same kind, ranging 

 throughout the old and new worlds, and yet not divisible into species. The wolf, also, 

 and the panther, already quoted, are instances of the same kind. The fact, therefore, of 

 the spelaean lion and hyaena having lived in a climate in the Pleistocene far differing 

 from that in which they now live cannot be quoted in favour of the recent and the fossil 

 belonging to distinct species. The remains of Hycena spelaa are found in vast numbers 

 in Britain, France, and Germany ; those of F. sjjelata being more sparingly found ; and 

 those of wolverine being abundant in the caverns of Liege and Gailenreuth, and absent 

 from Prance, and met with but in three caves in Britain. Neither of the two former 

 species have, as yet, been discovered in Russia or in the high northern latitudes of Europe 

 and Asia, where there are such vast stores of fossil remains. 



§ 12. Relation of Pleistocene to Prehistoric mammals, and those now living in Britain. 

 — The following table of British genera and species of land mammalia, from the Pleisto- 

 cene downwards to the present day, shows at a glance the close relation existing between 

 them ; and it shows, moreover, by the gradual elimination of the Arctic group of mammalia, 

 that the increase in temperature from the Pleistocene to the present day has been gradual : 



Genera. 



Pleistocene species. 



Prehistoric species. 



Species now living in 

 Britain. 



Castor, Lin. 



fiber, Lin. 



fiber, Lin. 





Mus, Lin. 



trogontherium, Fisch. 

 musculus, Lin. 



musculus, Lin. 



musculus, Lin. 

 messorius, Sh. 

 sylvaticus, Lin. 

 rattus, Lin. 

 decumanus, Pall. 



Arvicola, Lac. = Hypudseus, 

 III. 



Spermophilus, Fred. Cuv. 



Seiurus, Lin. 

 Myoxus, Zimm. 



amphibia, Desm. 

 agrestis, Flem. 

 pratensis, Bell. 

 citillus, Pall. 

 erythrogenoides, Falc. 



amphibia, Desm. 

 agrestis, Flem. 

 pratensis, Bell. 



amphibia, Desm, 

 agrestis, Flem. 

 pratensis, Bell. 



vulgaris, Lin. 

 avellanarius, Desm. 



1 See M. de Serres, " Sur l'Origine des Animaux et des Vegetaux," ' Revue du Midi,' torn, ix, 

 v livraison. 



2 See preceding note on Felis spelcea. 



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