CHAP. X.] 
THE PALiEARCTIC REGION. 
195 
tion, which represents a scene in the Alps of Central Europe, 
with figures of some of the most characteristic Mammalia 
and Birds of this sub-region. On the left is the badger 
(Meles Taxus) one of the weasel family, and belonging to a 
genus which is strictly Palajarctic. It abounds in Central and 
Northern Europe and also extends into North Asia, but is repre- 
sented by another species in Thibet and by a third in Japan. 
The elegantly-formed creatures on the right are chamois [Rupi- 
capra t?'agus), almost the only European antelopes, and wholly 
confined to the higher mountains, from the Pyrenees to the 
Carpathians and the Caucasus. The chamois is the only 
species of the genus, and is thus perhaps the most characteristic 
European mammal. The bird on the left, above the badgers, is 
the Alpine chough, ( Fregilus pyrrhocorax). It is found in the 
high mountains from the Alps to the Himalayas, and is allied 
to the Cornish chough, which is still found on our south- 
western coasts, and which ranges to Abyssinia and North 
China. The Alpine chough differs in having a shorter bill of 
an orange colour, and vermilion red feet as in the other 
species. In the foreground are a pair of ruffs [Machetes pugnax) 
belonging to the Scolopacidse or snipe family, and most nearly 
allied to the genus Tringa or sandpiper. This bird is remark- 
able for the fine collar of plumes which adorns the males in the 
breeding season, when they are excessively pugnacious. It is 
the only species of its genus, and ranges over all Europe and 
much of Northern Asia, migrating in the winter to the plains of 
India, and even down the east coast of Africa as far as the 
Cape of Good Hope ; but it only breeds in the Paleearctic 
region, over the greater part of which it ranges. 
Reptiles and Amphibia. — There are no genera of reptiles 
peculiar to this sub-region. Both snakes and lizards are compara- 
tively scarce, there being about fourteen species of the former 
and twelve of the latter. Our common snake ( Tropidonotus 
natrix) extends into Sweden and North .Russia, but the viper 
(Viperus berus) goes further north, as far as Archangel (64° N.), 
and in Scandinavia (67° N.), and is the most Arctic of all known 
