VII. Map of the Palearctic Region, showing its 196 VIII. Outline Map of the World, showing the six Sea-regions 216 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Gorilla, Young Female. THE AUSTRALIAN REGION FIG. 1. The Duck-bill (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) Frontispiece PAGK 23 25 28 FIG. 7. The Quica Opossum (Didelphys opossum) 8. Hoffmann's Sloth (Cholopus hoffmanni) 56 57 9. The Great Ant-eater (Myrmecophaga jubata) 58 59 FIG. 13. The Cape Aard-vark (Orycteropus capensis) 14. The White-bellied Pangolin (Manis tricuspis) ", 15. The Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) 89 90 91 30. The Prong-buck (Antilocapra americana) 31. The Rocky-mountain Goat (Haploceros montanus) xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION (PLATE I., p. 16) It has long been evident to naturalists that the ordinary political divisions of the earth's surface do not correspond with those based on the geographical distribution of animal life. Europe, for instance, the most important of all the continents politically speaking, is for zoological geographers, as well as for physical, but a small fragment of Asia. Again, the strip of Africa which borders the Mediterranean and extends to the Sahara agrees closely, as regards its animal life, with Europe, and is altogether different from the great mass of the African continent. Proceeding to America we find that physical geographers, as well as political, divide the two great masses of the New World at Panama. But those who study distribution have ascertained that Central America and Southern Mexico belong zoologically to South America, and they are consequently obliged to place the line of demarcation much further north. Let us, therefore, dismiss from our minds for the moment the ordinary notions of both physical and political A |