The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

chap, x.] THE PALiEARCTIC REGION. 195tion, which represents a scene in the Alps of Central Europe,with figures of some of the most characteristic Mammaliaand Birds of this sub-region. On the left is the badger(Meles Taxus) one of the weasel family, and belonging to agenus which is strictly Palaearctic. It abounds in Central andNorthern Europe and also extends into North Asia, but is representedby another species in Thibet and by a third in Japan.The elegantly-formed creatures on the right are chamois [Rupicapratragus), almost the only European antelopes, and whollyconfined to the higher mountains, from the Pyrenees to theCarpathians and the Caucasus. The chamois is the onlyspecies of the genus, and is thus perhaps the most characteristicEuropean mammal. The bird on the left, above the badgers, isthe Alpine chough, (Fregilus pyrrhocorax). It is found in thehigh mountains from the Alps to the Himalayas, and is alliedto the Cornish chough, which is still found on our southwesterncoasts, and which ranges to Abyssinia and NorthChina. The Alpine chough differs in having a shorter bill ofan orange colour, and vermilion red feet as in the otherspecies. In the foreground are a pair of ruffs {Machetes pugnax)belonging to the Scolopacidae or snipe family, and most nearlyallied to the genus Tringa or sandpiper. This bird is remarkablefor the fine collar of plumes which adorns the males inbreeding season, when they are excessively pugnacious. It isthe only species of its genus, and ranges over all Europe andmuch of Northern Asia, migrating in the winter to the plains ofIndia, and even down the east coast of Africa as far as theCape of Good Hope ; but it only breeds in the Palsearcticregion, over the greater part of which itranges.theReptiles and Amphibia.—There are no genera of reptilespeculiar to this sub-region. Both snakes and lizards are comparativelyscarce, there being about fourteen species of the formerand twelve of the latter. Our common snake {Troyidonotusnatrix) extends into Sweden and North Eussia, but the viper(Viperus berus) goes further north, as far as Archangel (64° N.),and in Scandinavia (67° N.), and isthe most Arctic of all known