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lapponica); the shore-lark (Otocorys alpestris); the sand-martin (Cotyle riparia), and the sea-eagle (Haliæetus albicilla).

Those which are more characteristic of the northern forests, and which do not pass beyond them, are the linnet; two crossbills (Loxia Leucoptera and L. Curvirostra); the pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator); the waxwing; the common magpie; the common swallow; the peregrine falcon; the rough-legged buzzard; and three species of owls.

Fully one-half of the land-birds of Siberia are identical with those of Europe, the remainder being mostly representative species peculiar to Northern Asia, with a few stragglers and immigrants from China and Japan or the Himalayas. A much larger proportion of the wading and aquatic families are European or Arctic, these groups having always a wider range than land birds.

Reptiles and Amphibia.—From the nature of the country and climate these are comparatively few, but in the more temperate districts snakes and lizards seem to be not uncommon. Halys, a genus of Crotaline snakes, and Phrynocephalus, lizards of the family Agamidæ, are characteristic of these parts. Simotes, a snake of the family Oligodontidæ, reaches an elevation of 16,000 feet in the Himalayas, and therefore enters this sub-region.

Insects.-Mesapia and Hypermnestra, genera of Papilionidæ, are butterflies peculiar to this sub-region; and Parnassius is as characteristic as it is of our European mountains. Carabidæ are also abundant, as will be seen by referring to the Chapter on the Distribution of Insects in the succeeding part of this work. The insects, on the whole, have a strictly European character, although a large proportion of the species are peculiar, and several new genera appear.

IV-Japan and North China, or the Manchurian Sub-region.

This is an interesting and very productive district, corresponding in the east to the Mediterranean sub-region in the west, or rather perhaps to all western temperate Europe. Its limits are not very well defined, but it probably includes all Japan; the Corea and Manchuria to the Amour river and to the lower

slopes of the Khingan and Peling mountains; and China to the Nanlin mountains south of the Yang-tse-kiang. On the coast of China the dividing line between it and the Oriental region seems to be somewhere about Foo-chow, but as there is here no natural barrier, a great intermingling of northern and southern forms takes place.

Japan is volcanic and mountainous, with a fine climate and a most luxuriant and varied vegetation. Manchuria is hilly, with a high range of mountains on the coast, and some desert tracts in the interior, but fairly wooded in many parts. Much of northern China is a vast alluvial plain, backed by hills and mountains with belts of forest, above which are the dry and barren uplands of Mongolia. We have a tolerable knowledge of China, of Japan, and of the Amoor valley, but very little of Corea and Manchuria. The recent researches of Père David in Moupin, in east Thibet, said to be between 31° and 32° north latitude, show, that the fauna of the Oriental region here advances northward along the flanks of the Yun-ling mountains (a continuation of the Himalayas); since he found at different altitudes representatives of the Indo-Chinese, Manchurian, and Siberian faunas. On the higher slopes of the Himalayas, there must be a narrow strip from about 8,000 to 11,000 feet elevation intervening between the tropical fauna of the Indo-Chinese subregion and the almost arctic fauna of Thibet; and the animals of this zone will for the most part belong to the fauna of temperate China and Manchuria, except in the extreme west towards Cashmere, where the Mediterranean fauna will in like manner intervene. On a map of sufficiently large scale, therefore, it would be necessary to extend our present sub-region westward along the Himalayas, in a narrow strip just below the upper limits of forests. It is evident that the large number of Fringillidæ, Corvida, Troglodytidæ, and Parida, often of south Palearctic forms, that abound in the higher Himalayas, are somewhat out of place as members of the Oriental fauna, and are equally so in that of Thibet and Siberia; but they form a natural portion of that of North China an the one side, or of South Europe on the other.

Mammalia. This sub-region contains a number of peculiar and very interesting forms, most of which have been recently discovered by Père David in North and West China and East Thibet. The following are the peculiar genera :-Rhinopithecus, a sub-genus of monkeys, here classed under Semnopithecus; Anurosorex, Scaptochirus, Uropsilus and Scaptonyx, new forms of Talpidæ or moles; Æluropus (Æluridæ); Nyctereutes (Canidæ); Lutronectes (Mustelida); Cricetulus (Muridæ); Hydropotes, Moschus, and Elaphodus (Cervidae). The Rhinopithecus appears to be a permanent inhabitant of the highest forests of Moupin, in a cold climate. It has a very thick fur, as has also a new species of Macacus found in the same district. North China and East Thibet seem to be very rich in Insectivora. Scaptochirus is like a mole; Uropsilus between the Japanese Urotrichus and Sorex; Scaptonyx between Urotrichus and Talpa. Eluropus seems to be the most remarkable mammal discovered by Père David. It is allied to the singular panda (Elurus fulgens) of Nepal, but is as large as a bear, the body wholly white, with the feet, ears, and tip of the tail black. It inhabits the highest forests, and is therefore a true Palearctic animal, as most likely is the Elurus. Nyctereutes, a curious racoon-like dog, ranges from Canton to North China, the Amoor and Japan, and therefore seems to come best in this sub-region; Hydropotes and Lophotragus are small hornless deer confined to North China; Elaphodus, from East Thibet, is another peculiar form of deer; while the musk deer (Moschus) is confined to this sub-region and the last. Besides the above, the following Palearctic genera were found by Père David in this sub-region: Macacus; five genera or sub-genera of bats (Vespertilio, Vesperus, Vesperugo, Rhinolophus, and Murina); Erinaceus, Nectogale, Talpa, Crocidura and Sorex, among Insectivora; Mustela, Putorius, Martes, Lutra, Viverra, Meles, Elurus, Ursus, Felis, and Canis, among Carnivora; Hystrix, Arctomys, Myospalax, Spermophilus, Gerbillus, Dipus, Lagomys, Lepus, Sciurus, Pteromys, Arvicola, and Mus, among Rodentia; Budorcas, Nemorhedus, Antilope, Ovis, Moschus, Cervulus and Cervus among Ruminants; and the widespread Sus or wild boar. The following Oriental genera are also

included in Père David's list, but no doubt occur only in the lowlands and warm valleys, and can hardly be considered to belong to the Palæarctic region: Paguma, Helictis, Arctonyx, Rhizomys, Manis. The Rhizomys from Moupin is a peculiar species of this tropical genus, but all the others inhabit Southern China.

A few additional forms occur in Japan: Urotrichus, a peculiar Mole, which is found also in north-west America; Enhydra, the sea otter of California; and the dormouse (Myoxus). Japan also possesses peculiar species of Macacus, Talpa, Meles, Canis, and Sciuropterus.

It will be seen that this sub-region is remarkably rich in Insectivora, of which it possesses ten genera; and that it has also several peculiar forms of Carnivora, Rodentia, and Ruminants.

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Birds. To give an accurate idea of the ornithology of this sub-region is very difficult, both on account of its extreme richness and the impossibility of defining the limits between it and the Oriental region. A considerable number of genera which are well developed in the high Himalayas, and some which are peculiar to that district, have hitherto always been classed as Indian, and therefore Oriental groups; but they more properly belong to this sub-region. Many of them frequent the highest forests, or descend into the Himalayan temperate zone only in winter; and others are so intimately connected with Palearctic species, that they can only be considered as stragglers into the border land of the Oriental region. On these principles we consider the following genera to be confined to this sub-region:

Grandala, Nemura (Sylviida); Pterorhinus (Timaliida); Cholornis, Conostoma, Heteromorpha (Panuridae); Cyanoptila (Muscicapidae); Eophona (Fringillida); Dendrotreron (Columbida); Lophophorus, Tetraophasis, Crossoptilon, Pucrasia, Thaumalea, and Ithaginis (Phasianidæ). This may be called the sub-region of Pheasants; for the above six genera, comprising sixteen species of the most magnificent birds in the world, are all confined to the temperate or cold mountainous regions of the Himalayas, Thibet, and China; and in addition we have

most of the species of tragopan (Ceriornis), and some of the true pheasants (Phasianus).

The most abundant and characteristic of the smaller birds are warblers, tits, and finches, of Palearctic types; but there are also a considerable number of Oriental forms which penetrate far into the country, and mingling with the northern birds. give a character to the Ornithology of this sub-region very different from that of the Mediterranean district at the western end of the region. Leaving out a large number of wide-ranging groups, this mixture of types may be best exhibited by giving lists of the more striking Palæarctic and Oriental genera which are here found intermingled.

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