bear of Tubet (ursus thibetanus), tbe musk-deer (moscbus moscbiferus),
the Tzeiran (antilope gutturosa), the Mongolian goat (capra sibiriea),
the argali (ovis argali), and the yak (bos grunniens). This is also the
home of the Bactrian or double-hunched camel, and of the wild
horse (equus caballus), the wild ass (equus onager), and another equine
species, the Dtschigetai (equus hemionus). The wide distribution
of the musk-deer in the Altai, and the Himmalayan and Chinese
Alps, shows the whole Asiatic range of the temperate, zone to
be a most natural zoological realm, subdivided into distinct provinces
by the greater localization of the largest number of its representatives.
If we now ask what are the nations of men inhabiting those regions,
we find that they all belong to the so-called Mongolian race,
the natural limits of which correspond exactly to the range- of the
Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian and Caspian faunae taken together,
and that peculiar types, distinct nations of this race, cover respectively
the different faunae of this realm. The Japanese inhabiting
the Japanese zoological province; the Chinese, the Chinese province;
the Mongols, the Mongolian province; and the Turks, the
Caspian province; eliminating, of course, the modern establishment
of Turks in Asia Minor and Europe.
The unity of Europe, (exclusive of its arctic regions,) in connection
with south-western Asia and northern Africa, as a distinct zoological
realm, is established by the range of its mammalia and by the limits
of the migrations of its birds, as well as by the physical features of
its whole extent. Thus we find its deer and stag, its bear, its hare,
its squirrel, its wolf and wild-cat, its fox and jackal, its otter, its
weasel and marten, its badger, its bear, its mole, its hedgehogs, and
a number of bats, either extending over the whole realm in Europe,
western Asia, and north Africa, or so linked together as to show that
in their combination with the birds, reptiles, fishes, &c., of the same
countries, they constitute a natural zoological association analogous
to that of Asia, but essentially different in reference to species. Like
the eastern realm, this European world may he sub-divided into a
number of distinct faunae, characterized each by a variety of peculiar
animals. In western Asia we find, for instance, the common camel,
instead ■ of the Bactrian, whilst Mount Sinai, Mounts Taurus and
Caucasus have goats and wild sheep which differ as much from those
of Asia, as they differ from those of Greece, of Italy, of the Alps,
of the Pyrenees, of the Atlas, and of Egypt. Wild horses are
known to have inhabited Spain and Germany; and a wild bull extended
over the whole range of central Europe, which no longer
exists there. The Asiatic origin of our domesticated animals may,
therefore, well be questioned, even if we were still to refer western
Asia to the Asiatic realm; since the ass, and some of the breeds of
our horse, only belong to the table-lands of Iran and Mongolia, whilst
the other species, including the cat, may all be traced to species of
the European realm. The domesticated cat is referred by Biippell to
felis maniculata of Egypt; by others, to felis catus ferus of'central
Europe; thus, in both cases, to an animal of the European realm.
Whether the dog be a species by itself, or its varieties derived from
several species which have completely amalgamated, or be it descended
from the wolf, the fox, or the jackal, every theory must limit its natural
range to the European world. The merino sheep is still represented
in the wild state by the mouflon of Sardinia, and was formerly wild in
all the mountains of Spain; whether the sheep of the patriarchs were
derived from those of Mt. Taurus, or from Armenia, still they differed
from those of western Europe; since, a thousand years before our
era, the Phoenicians preferred the wool from the Iberian peninsula to
that of their Syrian neighbours. The goats differ so much in different
parts of the world, that it is still less possible tb refer them to one
common stock; and while Mepaul and Cashmere have their own
breeds, we may well consider those of Egypt and Sinai as distinct,
especially as they differ equally from those of Caucasus and of
Europe. The common bull is derived from the wild species which
has become extinct in Europe, and is not identical with any of the
wild species of Asia, notwithstanding some assertions to the contrary.
The hog descends from the common boar, now found wild over the
whole temperate zone in the Old World. Both ducks and geese
have their wild representatives in Europe; so also the pigeon. As
for the common fowls, they are decidedly of east Asiatic origin; but
the period of their importation is not well known, nor even the wild
species from which they are derived. The wild turkey is well known
as an inhabitant of the American continent.
How, taking further into account the special distribution of all the
animals, wild as well as domesticated, of the European temperate
zone, we may sub-divide it into the following' eight faunae: — 1st,
Scandinavian fauna; 2d, Russian fauna ; 3d, The fauna of Central
Europe; 4th, The fauna of Southern Europe; 5th, The fauna of
Iran; 6th, The Syrian fauna; 7th, The Egyptian fauna; and 8th,
The fauna of the Atlas. The special works upon the zoology of
Europe, the great works illustrative of the Ereneh expeditions in
Egypt, Morocco, and Algiers, the travels of Riippell and Russeger in
Egypt and Syria, of M. Wagner in Algiers, of Demidoff in southern
Russia, &e. &c., and the special treatises on the geographical distribution
of mammalia by A. Wagner, and of animals in general by