Africa. Whether the genus is African or Asiatic is immaterial for our
purpose, since, in any case, the only European species came to us from
the east with the Oriental migration. The distribution of the Alpine
Snow Finch (_Montifringilla nivalis_) is very similar to that of the
birds we have just been considering. It inhabits the Alps up to a great
height, but occurs also on the Pyrenees and other South European
mountain ranges as far east as Palestine, where again it is found in the
Lebanon. The genus _Montifringilla_ has seventeen other species. Twelve
of these live in Central Asia and Japan, extending as far north as
Kamtchatka, while five inhabit Western North America right down to
Mexico. There is every probability that in this case also we have to
deal with an Asiatic genus which spread eastward to America, and
westward to Europe.

As regards the Reptiles, there are _no_ peculiar Alpine forms, but among
the Amphibia some species deserve to be mentioned. Up to an elevation of
10,000 feet we find in the Alps the Black Salamander (_Salamandra
atra_); and it is apparently quite peculiar to them, never having been
observed in the plains. The handsome black and yellow Salamander
(_Salamandra maculosa_)--so well known as a terrarium specimen--likewise
occurs in the Alps, and it has besides a fairly wide distribution in
Europe. It is known from Southern Germany, the Pyrenees, Spain,
Portugal, Sardinia, Corsica, Greece, Syria, and Algiers. A third species
(_S. caucasica_) inhabits the Caucasus. The evidence of distribution
here points emphatically to an Alpine origin of the genus _Salamandra_.
We cannot tell where the ancestors of _Salamandra_ may have come from,
but several other genera of _Salamandridae_ are certainly Asiatic. Our
common Newt (_Molge vulgaris_) belongs to a genus with nineteen species,
several of which are peculiar to Europe. The general range of the genus,
however, extends to North America, and it is more probable therefore
that it originated in Asia. If so, it certainly must have passed into
Europe at a very early date. Let us assume the first _Molges_ to have
traversed the AEgean Sea on _terra firma_ to Greece in miocene times,
they might thus have been able to travel straight on to the old
Tyrrhenian continent of which Corsica and Sardinia now form the
remains, and also on to North-west Africa. Indeed, we find high up in
the Corsican mountains an interesting large brownish-grey Newt (_Molge
montana_)