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In the above lists there are rather more Oriental than Palæarctic genera; but it must be remembered that most of the former are summer migrants only, or stragglers just entering the sub-region; whereas the great majority of the latter are permanent residents, and a large proportion of them range over the greater part of the Manchurian district. Many of those in the Oriental column should perhaps be omitted, as we have no exact determination of their range, and the limits of the regions are very uncertain. It must be remembered, too, that the Palearctic genera of Sylviidæ, Paridæ, and Fringillidæ, are often represented by numerous species, whereas the corresponding Oriental genera have for the most part only single species; and we shall then find that, except towards the borders of the Oriental region the Palearctic element is strongly predominant. Four of the more especially Oriental groups are confined to Japan, the southern

extremity of which should perhaps come in the Oriental region. The great richness of this sub-region compared with that of Siberia is well shown by the fact, that a list of all the known land-birds of East Siberia, including Dahuria and the comparatively fertile Amoor Valley, contains only 190 species; whereas Père David's catalogue of the birds of Northern China with adjacent parts of East Thibet and Mongolia (a very much smaller area) contains for the same families 366 species. Of the Siberian birds more than 50 per cent. are European species, while those of the Manchurian sub-region comprise about half that proportion of land-birds which are identical with those of Europe.

Japan is no doubt very imperfectly known, as only 134 landbirds are recorded from it. Of these twenty-two are peculiar species, a number that would probably be diminished were the Corea to be explored. Of the genera, only nine are IndoMalayan, while forty-three are Palearctic.

Plate III-Scene on the Borders of North-West China and Mongolia with Characteristic Mammalia and Birds. — The mountainous districts of Northern China, with the adjacent portions of Thibet and Mongolia, are the head-quarters of the pheasant tribe, many of the most beautiful and remarkable species being found there only. In the north-western provinces of China and the southern parts of Mongolia may be found the species figured. That in the foreground is the superb golden pheasant (Thaumalea picta), a bird that can hardly be surpassed for splendour of plumage by any denizen of the tropics. The large bird perched above is the eared pheasant (Crossoptilon auritum), a species of comparatively sober plumage but of remarkable and elegant form. In the middle distance is Pallas's sand grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus), a curious bird, whose native country seems to be the high plains of Northern Asia, but which often abounds near Pekin, and in 1863 astonished European ornithologists by appearing in considerable numbers in Central and Western Europe, in every part of Great Britain, and even in Ireland.

The quadruped figured is the curious racoon dog (Nyctereutes

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