The History of the European Fauna

by R. F. Scharff

Fig. 1.—Map of the British Islands, indicating approximately the areas inhabited by the northern, southern, and eastern animals. The horizontal lines represent the areas of northern species, the sloping lines those of southern and eastern ones.

In the problems which are being discussed in this work I have often found it of advantage, in order to facilitate the comprehension of the arguments used, to give maps. Some of these represent the geographical conditions at the particular epoch referred to in the text, but they merely claim to give a general idea. There was never any intention to make them correspond with all the data of which we have geological evidence. They are what I might call "diagrammatic." In comparing them with reconstructions of former physical geography such as have been attempted from time to time, I hope geologists will therefore deal leniently with the faults I may have committed, and remember that the maps are "impressions," or "diagrams," and not faithful representations of all the geographical revolutions witnessed by some of our remote forefathers at any particular period.

The knowledge we gain from a study of the British Tertiary deposits enables us to affirm positively that both the eastern and the northern species arrived in these islands comparatively recently, but that the southern forms must have migrated northward from the Continent long ages ago. Since the northern and the eastern migrations—that is to say, those coming from the north and east—were the last to arrive in Northern Europe, the remains of the animals contained in the most recent deposits of that portion of our continent will furnish us with a clue as to the extent of the area inhabited by them. This is not all, however. It is also possible to discover from these remains the direction which the animals that they belonged to came from. As we shall learn later on, a migration on a vast scale entered Europe during the Pleistocene epoch—the most recent of the geological epochs, during which great extensions of glaciers occurred in the mountainous regions of Europe. The latter period is known to us as the Ice Age or Glacial period. This will be described more fully in Chapter II., meanwhile I may mention that we presume that this migration came from the east, because no remains of the members of that particular fauna are known from Spain, Southern Italy, Scandinavia, Ireland, or from the Balkan peninsula. The number of species evidently belonging to this same migration, moreover, become fewer as we proceed westward, and a large proportion of them still inhabit Northern Asia, though most of them are now extinct in Europe. After having thoroughly studied such a recent geological migration, we learn to understand others better, though the more ancient they are, the fewer are the traces and the more difficult are they to follow.

Then again we have to take into consideration the fact, that whilst mammals, particularly the larger herbivores, are forced to migrate frequently owing to scarcity of food or temporary changes of climate, many of the invertebrates remain practically unaffected by either. Most of our land mollusca, for instance, are satisfied with meagre provender, and stand extremes of climate well, as long as there is sufficient moisture. As a result of their peculiar disposition, many of them, no doubt, have survived through several geological epochs, and have witnessed vast geographical revolutions in their immediate surroundings, whilst mammals are comparatively short-lived. Being driven from one country to another, and exposed to innumerable enemies, new types appear and old ones rapidly vanish; in fact, there are almost constant changes in the mammalian fauna as we pass from one epoch to another.

I have until now referred more particularly to the British fauna and the North European in general, because the history of our own animals interests us all more than those of any other European area. It is, moreover, preferable to commence our investigations into the origin of the European fauna by the study of a small district. This should, if possible, be an island. If we took a slice of the continent like France or Germany, we should find the problem more complex. Instead of choosing the British Islands, we might, however, take an island like Corsica or Sardinia. In either of these we should discover peculiarities in the composition of their fauna precisely similar to those which I have indicated to be present in the British fauna. We should find probably a more striking endemic[3] element, which with us is so meagre that it can almost be left unnoticed; the main features, however, remain nearly the same. The fauna of both of these islands is composed of a strong southern element, of an eastern and a northern one, and in addition we have here species whose ancestors lived in Western Europe.

Before investigating more minutely the problems suggested by the composition of the faunas of these insular and also of some continental areas, it is necessary that we should thoroughly understand all about the migrations of animals. One of the principal objects of this work is to show how the autochthonous animals of Europe, i.e., those which have originated there, may be distinguished from the immigrants, and to trace the latter to the home of their ancestors. But in doing so, it is necessary to refer to the many important geographical changes which have occurred in Europe during the latest geological epochs. The study of the geographical distribution of the European fauna, as expounded in this work, will in many instances confirm the theories as to geographical changes based upon geological foundations. But in every case the views herein advocated are founded upon the geographical distribution of living and extinct organisms alone.

A terrestrial mammal like the deer can, under ordinary circumstances, only reach one part of a country from another by walking or running to it; but a beetle, such as the cockchafer, has two different modes of progression. It may walk or fly. In both, however, there is a third mode of transport—an involuntary one. The deer may be suddenly seized by a flood whilst crossing a river, and carried far away without necessarily coming to grief. The beetle in a similar manner could be transported to a distant country, or it might be caught in a whirlwind and blown hundreds of miles off.

We may thus distinguish between the natural or active and the accidental or passive means of distribution of animals. The active mode of dispersal again may be only migratory, as in most animals, or periodic and migratory, as in some birds and fishes. It is of course the tendency of every species to spread in all directions from its original home, provided it does not encounter obstacles, such as want of food, unsuitability of climate or soil, or barriers such as mountains, rivers, or the sea. Birds might be thought to be little interfered with by any of these barriers, but, as Dr. Wallace has shown, they are almost as much affected by them in their distribution as mammals are.

This then is the ordinary migratory distribution. Periodic distribution obtains with migratory birds and fishes. The annual flight of swallows to their northern summer residence comes under the heading of periodic migration or distribution, but apart from this, the swallow must seek to extend its range by the ordinary method, like every other animal. Similarly, the herring migrates periodically into shallow water to spawn, only to return again to its deeper home, where, as its numbers increase, there must be a tendency to spread. We have in these cases, therefore, both a periodic and an ordinary movement of migration.