394 
BE VIEWS. 
confined to the vicinity of Mendoza. Neither that nor any other 
Armadillo occurs on the western side of the Andes in this part of 
South America ; though farther northward a Dasypus of the section 
Draopus is found in the environs of Guayaquil, and has been described 
by Dr. Burmeister from a specimen in the Museum at Lima under 
the name Dasypus hirsutus 
Buminants are scarce in La Plata. Though one would suppose 
the open pampas of South America to be the very place for Antelopes, 
Sheep and Oxen, not a single hollow-horned Buminant is found in 
a feral state throughout the whole Continent. Three species of Cervus 
of peculiar form, and two of Auchenia , the feeble representative of 
the Paleogean Camelus are all La Plata can muster. Compare with 
this the corresponding latitudes of Africa and we shall find perhaps 
fifty species of Antelopes within a similar area, and several repre¬ 
sentatives of the genus Dos. In the present state of our scientific 
knowledge it is not very easy to explain this, but we have no doubt 
when the geological changes undergone by the South American con¬ 
tinent, and their necessary effects upon animal life have been carefully 
worked it will become by no means impossible to give an explanation 
of this and many other at present inexplicable facts of “ distribution. 5 ’ 
Dr. Burmeister’s list of Mammals terminates with a Peccary 
(Dicotyles toryuatus) and a Tapir ( Tapirus suillus) , which are the only 
representatives in La Plata of the Cuvierian Order of Pachyderms. 
* Reise II. p. 347. 
