Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/1038

TERRESTRIAL] bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) and king-crows (Dicruridae) are also more abundant than elsewhere; while the broad-bills (Eurylaemidae) are peculiar.

Among reptiles, the long-snouted crocodiles of the genera Gavialis and Tomistoma are elsewhere unknown at the present day. The river-tortoises of the family Trionychidae have three peculiar genera; while the other fresh-water tortoises differ from those of Ethiopia in belonging to the section Cryptodira, of which there are a number of peculiar generic types. The family Platysternidae is solely represented by a tortoise confined to the Malay countries. In the lizards the family Anguidae is represented by one genus; Agamidae are very abundant; and include several types peculiar to the region, among which may be noticed the flying-dragons (Draco). Chameleons are rare. The burrowing-snakes of the genus Typhlops are exceedingly numerous; the allied Ilysiidae are common to India and Neogaea; while the Uropeltidae are restricted to India and Ceylon. In the presence of pythons the region agrees with Ethiopia, as it does in possessing cobras; but it divides with Neogaea the range of the Amblycepnalidae, while it is also inhabited by pit-vipers (Crotalinae), which form an exclusively Asiatic and American group. Among the Amphibia, the region agrees with Ethiopia in possessing representatives of the limbless Apoda, but differs in the presence of frogs of the family Pelobatidae, while toads (Bufonidae) and true frogs (Raninae), especially those of the genus Rhacophorus, are abundant.

Of the fishes it must suffice to state that lung-fishes and ganoids are absent, as are also Mormyridae. But the families phiocephalidae (serpent-heads) and Rhynchobdellidae (or Mastacembelidae), which have a few African representatives, are abundant; while the Cobitidae are a group unknown in Ethiopia. Siluridae and Cyprinidae are common.

Allusion has been already made to the presence of African forms of mammals in the Tertiary deposits of northern India (some of which are, however, within the Mediterranean transition-region); and it may be added that remains of a baboon (Papio) and of a large pangolin allied to the west African species have been found in Madras.

Few words must suffice for the Malayan transitional area, which embraces Celebes, the Moluccas, &c.; and has a fauna showing a blending of that of the Oriental with that of the Australian region. While Celebes possesses a small buffalo allied to the Indian species, a monkey (Cynopithecus), and a peculiar type of pig (Babirusa), it has also cuscuses (Phalanger), while cassowaries, cockatoos and other Notogaeic types occur in the area. A notable feature is also the absence of Cyprinidae (carps) from Celebes, although they are abundant in Borneo.

The Mediterranean transition-region, the limitations of which are approximately shewn on the map, must likewise be dismissed with brief notice; its fauna at the eastern end being intermediate between those of the Oriental and the Holarctic region, while in the west it serves as the  No-man's-land between the Holarctic and the Ethiopian faunas. The most distinct portion of the Mediterranean fauna is undoubtedly that of Tibet, where are such peculiar types among mammals as the takin (Budorcas), the chiru antelope (Pantholops), the yak, representing a subgenus of Bos, snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus), the giant panda (Aeluropus), and certain peculiar shrews (Nectogale).

Farther west the great mole-rat (Spalax), the rabbit (subgenus Oryctolagus) and the two species of fallow-deer (subgenus Dama), are very characteristic of the Mediterranean zone, which is also the home of the addax antelope (Addax),the Barbary sheep (sub-genus Ammotragus), and numerous true sheep, wild goats and gazelles. Ctenodaclylus, the gundi, is a characteristic North African genus of rodents. It is also noteworthy that with the Mediterranean zone we enter the domain of typical deer of the red deer group (Cervus), and of bears of the brown bear group (Ursus arctus). The wolf and the fox are also animals whose territory we reach on entering the Mediterranean zone, although neither of these, or the brown bear, are confined to this tract, or even to the Palaearctic section of the Holarctic region.

Reference to many other animals of the Mediterranean tract will be found under the heading of the Palaearctic subregion.

The Holarctic region, which comprises the whole of the land lying northward of the Mediterranean transitional zone in the eastern, and north of the Sonoran zone in the western hemisphere, is the largest of all the zoological provinces of the globe. The whole territory is extra-tropical, and it is inhabited at the present day neither by monotremes, marsupials, edentates, lemurs nor monkeys, although representatives of the three latter occur in portions of the Mediterranean transitional region. The types common to the eastern and western halves of this region are to be met with on the two sides of the northern Pacific, and it is evident that the main communication took place by way of Bering Strait, although it has been suggested that there was also a land-bridge connecting the European continent with Iceland, and thus with Greenland.

Among characteristic groups of mammals common to the two

halves of the Holarctic region (or in some instances of portions of the adjacent transitional zones to the southward) the following may be mentioned: elk (Alces), reindeer (Rangifer), wapiti (Cervus canadensis and its Asiatic representatives), bison (subgenus Bison), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis and its representatives in north-eastern Asia), musk-ox (Ovibos), now extinct in the eastern hemisphere, glutton or wolverine (Gulo), brown bear (Ursus arctus and its representatives in north-east Asia and America), lynx (Felis lynx), wolf (Canis lupus), fox (C. vulpes), pine-marten (Mustela martes and the allied American form), ermine and weasel (Putorius), variable hare (Lepus timidus and its relatives), picas (Ochotona, or Lagomys), beavers (Castor), marmots (Arctomys), chipmunks (Tamias), susliks (Spermophilus, or Citillus), jumping-mice (Zapus), field-mice, or voles (Microtus, or Arvicola), lemmings (Lemmus and Dicrostonyx), mole-shrews (Urotrichus), and several genera of bats. To these may be added, as more exclusively arctic forms, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus), and the arctic fox (Canis lagopus). There are likewise many groups or species of birds common to the two divisions of the region. Among reptiles, the pond-tortoises of the genus Emys, it we include their Pleistocene range, are an essentially Holarctic (and Mediterranean-Sonoran) group. In regard to fishes, the whole area is characterized by the abundance of sturgeons (Acipenseridae), carps (Cyprinidae), pike (Esocidae), and the salmon group (Salmonidae), coupled with the scarcity of cat-fishes (Siluridae).

Further testimony in favour of the unity of the Holarctic region is afforded by the presence on the two sides of the Pacific (and in most cases nowhere else) of true alligators (Alligator), giant salamanders (Cryptobranchus and Megalobatrachus, really scarcely worthy of separation), and shovel-beaked sturgeons Scaphirhynchus). Again, it is highly probable that Pere David's deer of Central Asia, alone representing the genus Elaphurus, is akin to the fork-antlered deer, Mazama, of North America; and many other analogous instances might be quoted. Finally, the distribution of earth-worms affords the strongest confirmation of the view that the two halves of the Holarctic region form but a single zoological province, with the Mediterranean and Sonoran zones as transitional appendages.

In briefly reviewing some of the chief faunistic areas of the Palaearctic, as distinct from the Nearctic, subregion, it will be convenient to include some of the groups and species inhabiting the transitional Mediterranean zone, much of which is in reality only a portion of the Palaearctic sub-region. Distinctive of the area in this wider sense are a number of wild sheep, such as Ovis musimon, gmelini, ammon, poli, &c., which have no representatives on the other side of Bering Strait, as well as wild goats, like Capra hircusaeeaerus, C. ibex, and C. sibirica, belonging to an exclusively Old World genus. The saiga antelope (Saiga) and the chamois (Rupicapra) may also be regarded as Palaearctic (in the sense of Old World) types; as are also wild horses (Equus caballus przewalskii), and the kiang (E. hemionus) and onager (E. hemippus), the two latter being commonly termed wild asses, although widely different from the African animals properly so-called. There are also many peculiar types of deer, inclusive of the red deer (Cervus elaphus), Pere David's deer (Elaphurus), the roe-deer (Capreolus), and the musk-deer (Moschus); while the Chinese water-deer (Hydrelaphus) is one of the characteristic forms from the Mediterranean zone. Camels (Camelus) are a type quite unknown east of Bering Sea. Among the Carnivora, reference may be made to the raccoon-dog (Nyctereutes), the panda (Aelurus), now a Himalayan and Chinese type, but occurring in the later Tertiary of England and the continent, and the tiger (Felis tigris); the last being essentially a Siberian and Mongolian animal which only reached India at a comparatively recent date, and never penetrated to Ceylon. Badgers (Meles) are unknown in the Nearctic region. In the Insectivora the water-shrew (Neomys or Crossopus) is exclusively Palaearctic, as is the allied Diplomesodon, while the desmans (Myogale), although a Mediterranean type, are solely Old World. Among the rodents, reference may be made to the Old World family of the dormice (Gliridae or Myoxidae), of which the genera Glis and Muscardinus are restricted to the area; as are the hamsters (Cricetus) and zokors (Ellobius and Siphneus) in the Muridae, and Euchoreutes, Alactaga, and Platycercomys in the jerboa-group (Jaculidae, or Dipodidae). Sminthus is another characteristic Palaearctic (and Mediterranean) rodent. To continue the list would merely be wearisome, without any compensating advantage; but it may be added that there are a number of characteristic extinct forms, among the most notable of the latter of which are the aurochs or wild bull (Bos taurus primigenius) and the giant Irish deer (Cervus [Megaceros] giganteus).

Of the remaining groups of vertebrates characteristic of this subregion space admits of but scant mention. Among abundant and more or less characteristic birds, reference may be made to thrushes, warblers, jays, magpies, buntings, sparrows, and (in the eastern part of the Mediterranean zone) pheasants, pratincoles,