peccaries (1 genus, Dicotyles). These offer so many structural differences that they are often classed as a separate family. 2. The true swine (3 genera, Sus, Potamochoerus, and Babirusa); and, 3. The Phacochorinæ, or wart hogs (1 genus, Phacochorus). These last are also sometimes made into a separate family, but they are hardly so distinct as the Dicotylinæ.

The Peccaries (2 species), are peculiar to the Neotropical region, extending from Mexico to Paraguay. They also spread northwards into Texas, and as far as the Red River of Arkansas, thus just entering the Nearctic region; but with this exception. swine are wholly absent from this region, forming an excellent feature by which to differentiate it from the Palearctic.

Sus (14 species), ranges over the Palearctic and Oriental regions and into the first Australian sub-region as far as New Guinea; but it is absent from the Ethiopian region, or barely enters it on the north-east. Potamochoerus (3 species ?), is wholly Ethiopian (Plate V. vol. i. p. 278). Babirusa (1 species), is confined to two islands, Celebes and Bouru, in the first Australian sub-region. Phacochoerus (2 species), ranges over tropical Africa from Abyssinia to Caffraria.

Dr. J. E. Gray divides true swine (Sus) into 7 genera, but it seems far better to keep them as one.

Fossil Suida.-These are very numerous. Many extinct species of wild hog (Sus), are found in Europe and North India, ranging back from the Post-pliocene to the Upper Miocene formations. In the Miocene of Europe are numerous extinct genera, Bothriodon, Anthracotherium, Palæochorus, Hyotherium, and some others; while in the Upper Eocene occur Cebochorus, Charopotamus, and Acotherium,-these early forms having more resemblance to the peccaries.

None of these genera are found in America, where we have the living genus Dicotyles in the Post-pliocene and Pliocene deposits, both of North and South America; with a number of extinct genera in the Miocene. The chief of these are, Elotherium, Perchorus, Leptocharus, and Nanohyus, all from Dakota, and Thinohyus, from Oregon. One extinct genus, Platygonus, closely allied to Dicotyles, is found in the Post-pliocene of Nebraska. VOL. II.-15

Oregon, and Arkansas. Elotherium is said to be allied to the peccary and hippopotamus. Hyopotamus, from the Miocene of Dakota, is allied to Anthracotherium, and forms with it (according to Dr. Leidy) a distinct family of ancestral swine.

It thus appears, that the swine were almost equally well represented in North America and Europe, during Miocene and Pliocene times, but by entirely distinct forms; and it is a remarkable fact that these hardy omnivorous animals, should, like the horses, have entirely died out in North America, except a few peccaries which have preserved themselves in the sub-tropical parts and in the southern continent, to which they are comparatively recent emigrants. We can hardly have a more convincing proof of the vast physical changes that have occurred in the North American continent during the Pliocene and Post-pliocene epochs, than the complete extinction of these, along with so many other remarkable types of Mammalia.

According to M. Gaudry, the ancestors of all the swine, with the hippopotami and extinct Anthracotherium, Merycopotamus, and many allied forms,-are the Hyracotherium and Pliolophus, both found only in the London clay belonging to the Lower Eocene formation.

FAMILY 48.-CAMELIDE. (2 Genera, 6 Species).

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.

NEOTROPICAL NEARCTIC

PALEARCTIC ETHIOPIAN

ORIENTAL AUSTRALIAN

SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS.

The Camels are an exceedingly restricted group, the majority of the species now existing only in a state of domestication. The genus Camelus (2 species), is a highly characteristic desert form

of the Palearctic region, from the Sahara to Mongolia as far as Lake Baikal. Auchenia (4 species), comprehending the Llamas and Alpacas, is equally characteristic of the mountains and deserts of the southern part of South America. Two species entirely domesticated inhabit the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes; and two others are found in a wild state, the vicuna in the Andes of Peru and Chili (Plate XVI. vol. ii. p. 40), and the guanaco over the plains of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

Extinct Camelida.-No fossil remains of camels have been found in Europe, but one occurs in the deposits of the Siwalik Hills, usually classed as Upper Miocene, but which some naturalists think are more likely of Older Pliocene age. Merycotherium, teeth of which have been found in the Siberian drift, is supposed to belong to this family.

In North America, where no representative of the family now exists, the camel-tribe were once abundant. In the Post-pliocene deposits of California an Auchenia has been found, and in those of Kansas one of the extinct genus Procamelus. In the Pliocene period, this genus, which was closely allied to the living camels, abounded, six or seven species having been described from Nebraska and Texas, together with an allied form Homocamelus. In the Miocene period different genera appear,-Pœbrotherium, and Protomeryx,-while a Procamelus has been found in deposits of this age in Virginia.

In South America a species of Auchenia has been found in the caves of Brazil, and others in the Pliocene deposits of the pampas, together with two extinct genera, Palæolama and Camelotherium.

We thus find the ancestors of the Camelidæ in a region where they do not now exist, but which is situated so that the now widely separated living forms could easily have been derived from it. This case offers a remarkable example of the light thrown by paleontology on the distribution of living animals; and it is a warning against the too common practice of assuming the direct land connection of remote continents, in order to explain similar instances of discontinuous distribution to that of the present family.

FAMILY 49.-TRAGULIDÆ. (2 Genera, 6 Species.)

The Tragulidæ are a group of small, hornless, deer-like animals, with tusks in the upper jaw, and having some structural affinities with the camels. The musk-deer was formerly classed in this family, which it resembles externally; but a minute examination of its structure by M. Milne-Edwards, has shown it to be more nearly allied to the true deer. The Chevrotains, or mouse-deer, Tragulus (5 species), range over all India to the foot of the Himalayas and Ceylon, and through Assam, Malacca, and Cambodja, to Sumatra, Borneo, and Java (Plate VIII., vol. i. p. 337). Hyomoschus (1 species), is found in West Africa..

Extinct Tragulida.-A species of Hyomoschus is said to have been found in the Miocene of the South of France, as well as three extinct genera, Dremotherium (also found in Greece), with Lophiomeryx from the Upper Miocene, said to be allied to Tragulus; and Amphitragulus from the Lower Miocene, of more remote affinities, and sometimes placed among the Deer. There seems to be no doubt, however, that this family existed in Europe in Miocene times; and thus another case of discontinuous distribution is satisfactorily accounted for.

FAMILY 50.-CERVIDA. (8 Genera, 52 Species.)

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.

NEOTROPICAL NEARCTIC PALEARCTIC ETHIOPIAN ORIENTAL AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS.

The Cervidæ, or deer tribe, are an extensive group of animals equally adapted for inhabiting forests or open plains, the Arctic

regions or the Tropics. They range in fact over the whole of the great continents of the globe, with the one striking exception of Africa, where they are only found on the shores of the Mediterranean which form part of the Palearctic region. The following is the distribution of the genera.

Alces (1 species), the elk or moose, ranges all over Northern Europe and Asia, as far south as East Prussia, the Caucasus, and North China; and over Arctic America to Maine on the East, and British Columbia on the west. The American species may however be distinct, although very closely allied to that of Europe. Tarandus (1 species), the reindeer, has a similar range to the last, but keeps farther north in Europe, inhabiting Greenland and Spitzbergen; and in America extends farther south, to New Brunswick and the north shore of Lake Superior. There are several varieties or species of this animal confined to special districts, but they are not yet well determined. Cervus (40 species), the true deer, have been sub-divided into numerous subgenera characteristic of separate districts. They range over the whole area of the family, except that they do not go beyond 57° N. in America and a little further in Europe and Asia. In South America they extend over Patagonia and even to Tierra del Fuego. They are found in the north of Africa, and over the whole of the Oriental region, and beyond it as far as the Moluccas and Timor, where however they have probably been introduced by man at an early period. Dama (1 species), the fallow deer, is a native of the shores of the Mediterranean, from Spain and Barbary to Syria. Capreolus (2 species), the roe-deer, inhabits all Temperate and South Europe to Syria, with a distinct species in N. China. Cervulus (4 species), the muntjacs, are found in all the forest districts of the Oriental region, from India and Ceylon to China as far north as Ningpo and Formosa, also southward to the Philippines, Borneo, and Java. Moschus (1 species) the musk-deer, inhabits Central Asia from the Amoor and Pekin, to the Himalayas and the Siamese mountains above 8000 ft. elevation. This is usually classed as a distinct family, but M. Milne-Edwards remarks, that it differs in no important points of organisation from the rest of the Cervidae. Hydropotes