Palaearctic Sentence Examples

Thus comparing the Nearctic and Palaearctic floras we find striking differences overlying the points of agreement already indicated.

In some cases, such as the Ethiopian and Neotropical and the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, the faunas, although distinct, are related, several forms on opposite sides of the Atlantic being analogous, e.g.

These facts have led some naturalists to include the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions in one, termed Holarctic, and to suggest transitional regions, such as the Sonoran, between North and South America, and the Mediterranean, between Europe and Africa, or to create sub-regions, such as Madagascar and New Zealand.

Sclater' was the first to divide the world into a few great " regions," the Palaearctic, Ethiopian, Indian and Australian forming one group, the " Old World " (Palaeogaea); and the Nearctic and Neotropical forming a second, the New World (Neogaea).

Faunistically, although not geographically, the Nearctic and Palaearctic areas must form the two subdivisions of one great unit, for which the " Holarctic region " is now the generally accepted term.

The close affinity of North America with the Palaearctic avifauna becomes at once apparent if we exclude those groups of birds which we have good reason to believe have their original home in the Neotropical region, notably numerous Tyrannidae, humming-birds and the turkey-buzzards.

If we take the number of Nearctic species at 700, which is perhaps an exaggeration, and that of the Palaearctic at 850, we find that, exclusive of stragglers, there are about 120 common to the two areas.

Nearly 20 more are properly Palaearctic, but occasionally occur in America, and about 50 are Nearctic, which from time to time stray to Europe or Asia.

The Palaearctic Subregion is, broadly speaking, Europe and Asia, with the exception of India and China.

The entire number of Palaearctic families are, according to Newton, 67, and of the genera 323.

To compare the Palaearctic genera with those of the Australian and Neotropical regions would be simply a waste of time, for the points of resemblance are extremely few, and such as they are they lead to nothing.

It will therefore be seen from the above that next to the Nearctic area the Palaearctic has a much greater affinity to any other, a fact which might be expected from geographical considerations.

Having shown this much we have next to deal with the peculiarities of the vast Palaearctic subregion.

The Ethiopian Subregion comprises the whole of Africa and Madagascar, except the Barbary States, but including Arabia; in the north-east the subregion melts into the Palaearctic between Palestine and the Persian Gulf.

The Oriental Subregion comprises all the countries and numerous islands between the Palaearctic and Australian areas; it possesses upwards of seventy families, of which, however, only one is peculiar, but this family, the Eurylaemidae or broadbills, is of great importance since it represents all the Subclamatores.

Nearly all the mammals of Europe also occur in northern Asia, where, however, the Palaearctic fauna is enriched by numerous additional species.

The mammal fauna of the Indian region of Asia is much more highly developed than that of the Palaearctic. The Quadrumana are represented by several peculiar genera, amongst which are Semnopithecus, Hylobates and Simia.

The Carnivora are likewise numerous; and this region may be considered as the true home of the tiger, though this animal has wandered far north into the Palaearctic division of Asia.

G..Gmelin, Giildenstalt, Lepechin and others - in the exploration of the recently extended Russian empire supplied not only much material to the Commentarii and Acta of the Academy of St Petersburg, but more that is to be found in their narratives - all of it being of the highest interest to students of Palaearctic or Nearctic ornithology.

Elsewhere the forms are Palaearctic with intrusions from the east; but the length of the Syrian strip and the variety of its surface relief admit of considerable difference in the species inhabiting different districts.

No parrot has recently inhabited the Palaearctic Region,' and but one (the Conurus carolinensis, just mentioned) probably belongs to the Nearctic; nor are parrots represented by many different forms in either the Ethiopian or the Indian Regions.

Taken as a whole, the finches, concerning which no reasonable doubt can exist, are not only little birds with a hard bill, adapted in most cases for shelling and eating the various seeds that form the chief portion of their diet when adult, but they appear to be mainly forms which predominate in and are highly characteristic of the Palaearctic Region; moreover, though some are found elsewhere on the globe, the existence of but very few in the Notogaean hemisphere can as yet be regarded as certain.

With the exception of the single species of bullfinch already noticed as occurring in Alaska, all the above forms o£ finches are peculiar to the Palaearctic Region.

To this species are more or less closely allied numerous birds inhabiting the Palaearctic and Indian regions, as well as the greater part of America, but not occurring in the Antilles, in the southern portion of the Neotropical Region, or in the Ethiopian or Australian.

The common crossbill of the Palaearctic region (Loxia curvirostra) is about the size of a skylark, but more stoutly built.

The fauna of the Persian plateau he described as Palaearctic, with a great prevalence of desert forms; or, perhaps more correctly, Aug.

In the Caspian provinces he found the fauna, on the whole, Palaearctic also, most of the animals being identical with those of south-eastern Europe.

Including the oak-forests of Shiraz with the wooded slopes of the Zagros, he found in his third division that, however little known was the tract, it appeared to contain, like the second, a Palaearctic fauna with a few peculiar species.

As to Persian Mesopotamia, he considered its fauna to belong to the same Palaearctic region as Syria, but could scarcely speak with confidence on its characteristic forms. The fifth and last division, Baluchistan and the shores of the Persian Gulf, presented, however, in the animals common to the Persian highland for the most part desert types, whilst the characteristic Palaearctic species almost entirely disappear, their place being taken by Indian or Indo-African forms. The Persian Gulf Arab, though not equal to the pure Arabian, is a very serviceable animal, and has always a value in the Indian market.

The fauna of the Tibetan Himalaya is essentially European or rather that of the northern half of the old continent, which region has by zoologists been termed Palaearctic. Among the characteristic animals may be named the yak, from which is reared a cross breed with the ordinary horned cattle of India, many wild sheep, and two antelopes, as well as the musk-deer; several hares and some burrowing animals, including pikas (Lagomys) and two or three species of marmot; certain arctic forms of carnivora - fox, wolf, lynx, ounce, marten and ermine; also wild asses.

The fishes found in the rivers of the Himalaya show the same general connexion with the three neighbouring regions, the Palaearctic, the African and the Malayan.

Fauna.The Iberian Peninsula belongs to the Mediterranean sub-region of the Palaearctic region of the animal kingdom.

The earthworms of England belong entirely to the three genera Lumbricus, Allolobophora and Allurus, which are further subdivided by some systematists; and these genera form the prevalent earthworm fauna of the Palaearctic region and are also very numerous in the Nearctic region.

At last, in the latest Pliocene strata (often called " pre-Glacial ") we find a flora consisting almost entirely of existing species belonging to the Palaearctic regions, and nearly all still living in the country where the fossils are found.

The flora, however, is essentially Palaearctic, American and.Australian types having disappeared.

The Tegelen plants are mainly north European; but there occur others of central and south Europe, and various exotic and extinct forms, nearly all of which, however, belong to the Palaearctic region, though some may now be confined to widely separated parts of it.

Naturally no line whatever can be drawn between the Oriental and the Palaearctic subregions, and many otherwise essentially Indo-Malayan families extend far into the Australian realm, far across Wallace's line, whilst the reverse takes place to a much more moderate extent.

The northern portion of Asia, as far south as the Himalaya, is not zoologically distinct from Europe, and these two areas, with the strip of Africa north of the Atlas, constitute the Palaearctic region of Dr Sclater, whose zoological primary divisions of the earth have met with the general approval of naturalists.

Like the Nearctic the Palaearctic subregion seems to possess but one single peculiar family of land birds, the Panuridae, represented by the beautiful species known to Englishmen as the bearded titmouse, Panurus biarmicus.