. The geography of mammals. he shallow sea, and the WestIndian affinities of Swan Island (as shown by the presenceof a species of Capromys) lead to such a direct the other hand, the scarcity of land-mammals inJamaica and Cuba, and the absence of many families ofBirds found on the mainland, rather point the other help in these questions to be derived from palaeontologyis up to this time very scanty. Almost the only remains offossil mammals that have been yet obtained from the WestIndies are certain detached teeth and some fragmentarybones, found in some caves in the island
. The geography of mammals. he shallow sea, and the WestIndian affinities of Swan Island (as shown by the presenceof a species of Capromys) lead to such a direct the other hand, the scarcity of land-mammals inJamaica and Cuba, and the absence of many families ofBirds found on the mainland, rather point the other help in these questions to be derived from palaeontologyis up to this time very scanty. Almost the only remains offossil mammals that have been yet obtained from the WestIndies are certain detached teeth and some fragmentarybones, found in some caves in the island of Anguilla, whichis situated just to the east of the deep channel separatingthe Greater from the Lesser Antilles, and must, therefore,be included in the latter province. These remains havebeen described by Professor Cope (5), who considers themto be related to the Chinchillas, a family of rodents con-fined to South America. The nature of the Mammalian genera of the AntilleanRegion is summarised in the subjoined table :—. 72 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS Section V.—The Central American Sub-region This Sub-region, as has been already shown, contains thecoast-lands of Mexico lying along the Pacific and Atlanticshores from Mazatlan on the north on one side, and fromthe Rio Grande on the other, together with the whole ofCentral America from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to thatof Panama. As regards the fauna of this part of America, we arefortunate in being able to refer to the excellent account ofit contained in the Biologia Centrali-Americana of and Godman. The volume relating to themammals in this work was undertaken by Mr. Alston, andfinally completed after his death by one of the authors ofthis work in 1882 (3). Out of a total of sixty-nine generaof mammals represented in this Sub-region, only two seemto be absolutely restricted to it, and these, moreover, aregenera of bats, which may possibly be found at some futuretime to extend into the main South American contin
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidgeogra, booksubjectmammals
