. The geography of mammals. Fig. 7.—The Quica Opossum. (Didelphys opossum.) generally recognised families two belong entirely to theOld World; the other three—the Sloths, the Ant-eaters,and the Armadilloes (which are more nearly allied to oneanother than to the two Old World families)—are, withthe exception of one species of Armadillo (Tatusia THE NEOTROPICAL REGION 57 novemcincta), which extends into Texas, absolutely con-lined to the Neotropical Region, and are eminentlycharacteristic of its mammal-fauna. The Sloths (Brady-podidcv) of the present epoch at least, are entirely arboreal. Fig. 8
. The geography of mammals. Fig. 7.—The Quica Opossum. (Didelphys opossum.) generally recognised families two belong entirely to theOld World; the other three—the Sloths, the Ant-eaters,and the Armadilloes (which are more nearly allied to oneanother than to the two Old World families)—are, withthe exception of one species of Armadillo (Tatusia THE NEOTROPICAL REGION 57 novemcincta), which extends into Texas, absolutely con-lined to the Neotropical Region, and are eminentlycharacteristic of its mammal-fauna. The Sloths (Brady-podidcv) of the present epoch at least, are entirely arboreal. Fig. 8.—Hoffmanns Sloth.(Choiopus hoffmanni.) in their habits, and pass their lives suspended by theirlimbs on the underside of the branches of trees (Fig. 8).The Ant-eaters (Myrmecophagidse) are also mainly in-habitants of forests, and one of the three existing forms(Cyclothurus) is exclusively arboreal. A second (Taman-dua) may be said to be semi-arboreal, but the largest—the 58 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS Great Ant-eater as it is usually called (Fig. 9)—does notclimb trees, though mostly found in forest-districts. Thesethree animals are all widely distributed in the woodlandsof tropical America, but never met with elsewhere. TheArmadilloes {Dasypodidze) are mostly inhabitants of moreopen districts (see Fig. 10, p. 59). Besides the three living
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidgeogra, booksubjectmammals
