Aard-Vaarks. Of the Pangolins about seven species are generally acknowledged by naturalists, of which three belong to the Oriental and four to the Ethiopian Region. The species of each region belong to different sections of the genus. The Oriental Section consists of the Javan Pangolin (Manis javanica), which ranges from Burma through the Malay Peninsula to Java and Borneo; the Chinese Pangolin (M. aurita) from China, Assam, and Nepal; and the Indian Pangolin (M. pentadactyla) of India and Ceylon. Of the four species of the African section only one (Temminck's Pangolin) occurs out of the West African Sub-region, extending into Eastern and Southern Africa. Finally we have the Orycteropodidæ, or AardVaarks, which comprehend only the single genus Orycteropus, with two species entirely restricted to the Ethiopian Region, and forming one of its most characteristic types of mammal-life. SECTION IV.-SUMMARY AND DEDUCTIONS Table of the families and genera, showing the number of species in each Region. DEDUCTIONS 1. The Order Edentata contains about thirty-eight species, referable to fourteen genera and five families. 2. The Order is predominantly Neotropical, three of the families (the Sloths, Ant-eaters, and Armadilloes) with twenty-nine out of the thirty-eight species being confined to this Region. 3. Of the two remaining families one (the Aard-Vaarks) is purely Ethiopian, and the other (the Pangolins) is common to the Ethiopian and Oriental Region. CHAPTER XV DISTRIBUTION OF MARSUPIALS AND MONOTREMES SECTION I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS THE distribution of the two lowest orders of mammals, at which we have now arrived, is a comparatively simple matter, as these primitive creatures, which, according to the views of the highest authorities, form two primary subclasses of the whole class of Mammals (Metatheria and Prototheria), are confined exclusively to two of the great Zoological Regions of the earth. We will, nevertheless, pass the different families and the principal genera of these two orders in short review, and endeavour to point out the principal known facts of their distribution. SECTION II.-DISTRIBUTION OF THE MARSUPIALS The Marsupials have, until recently, been classified in six families, five of which belong to the Australian and one only to the Neotropical Region, and such was the plan of arrangement adopted for them by Mr. Thomas in his excellent catalogue of this group of mammals published in 1888. But great discoveries in this class have been made during the past ten years. A new Marsupial, of a most remarkable form of structure, necessitating the formation of a new family, has been found in Australia, and Mr. Thomas himself has shown the necessity of adding to the Neotropical section a Marsupial which is more allied to the Australian forms than to those previously known from America, and which necessitates the creation of a second Neotropical family. We have now, therefore, to deal with eight families of Marsupials, six of which belong to the Australian Region and two to America. These families embrace altogether about 172 species, of which 144 are Australian and 28 are American. According to Mr. Thomas's arrangement, these are divisible into two large groups, the Diprotodonts, which are mostly vegetable-eating animals, and the Polyprotodonts, which feed generally on flesh and insects. SECTION III-DISTRIBUTION OF DIPROTODONT The Kangaroos, or Macropodide, which form the first family of the Diprotodont section, are a numerous group embracing altogether more than sixty known species. These are distributed all over the Australian Region, but are specially abundant in Australia, where, as is well known, the Kangaroos form one of the most striking features of its peculiar mammal-life. In New Guinea and the Papuan Islands Kangaroos are by no means so abundant, especially those of the genus Macropus and the larger allied forms. On the other hand Dorcopsis and other smaller forms of Kangaroos range through the Papuan Sub-region up to Wallace's line, and New Guinea is especially peculiar |