and asses, gazelles, two species of antelopes, flying squirrels (Pteromys), ground squirrels (Tamias), marmots, of the genus Spermophilus, with camels and dromedaries, probably natives of the south-western part of this sub-region. The most abundant and conspicuous of the mammalia are the great herds of reindeer in the north, the wolves of the steppes, with the wild horses, goats, sheep, and antelopes of the plateaus and mountains.

Among the curiosities of this sub-region we must notice the seal, found in the inland and freshwater lake Baikal, at an elevation of about 2,000 feet above the sea. It is a species of Callocephalus, closely allied to, if not identical with, one inhabiting northern seas as well as the Caspian and Lake Aral. This would indicate that almost all northern Asia was depressed beneath the sea very recently; and Mr. Belt's view, of the ice during the glacial epoch having dammed up the rivers and converted much of Siberia into a vast freshwater or brackish lake, perhaps offers the best solution of the difficulty.1

Plate II.-Characteristic Mammalia of Western Tartary.— Several of the most remarkable animals of the Palearctic region inhabit Western Tartary, and are common to the European and Siberian sub-regions. We therefore choose this district for one of our illustrative plates. The large animals in the centre are the remarkable saiga antelopes (Saiga Tartarica), distinguished from all others by a large and fleshy proboscis-like nose, which gives them a singular appearance. They differ so much from all other antelopes that they have been formed into a distinct family by some naturalists, but are here referred to the great family Bovidæ. They inhabit the open plains from Poland to the Irtish River. On the left is the mole-rat, or sand-rat (Spalax murinus). This animal burrows under ground like a mole, feeding on bulbous roots. It inhabits the same country as the saiga, but extends farther south in Europe. On the right is a still more curious animal, the desman (Myogale Muscovitica), a long-snouted water-mole. This creature is fifteen inches long, including the

tail;

it burrows in the banks of streams, feeding on insects,

1 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1874, p. 494.

worms, and leeches; it swims well, and remains long under water, raising the tip of the snout, where the nostrils are situated, to the surface when it wants to breathe. It is thus well concealed; and this may be one use of the development of the long snout, as well as serving to follow worms into their holes in the soft earth. This species is confined to the rivers Volga and Don in Southern Russia, and the only other species known inhabits some of the valleys on the north side of the Pyrenees. In the distance are wolves, a characteristic feature of these wastes.

Birds. But few genera of birds are absolutely restricted to this sub-region. Podoces, a curious form of starling, is the most decidedly so; Mycerobas and Pyrrhospiza are genera of finches confined to Thibet and the snowy Himalayas; Leucosticte, another genus of finches, is confined to the eastern half of the subregion and North America; Tetraogallus, a large kind of partridge, ranges west to the Caucasus; Syrrhaptes, a form of sand-grouse, and Lerwa (snow-partridge), are almost confined here, only extending into the next sub-region; as do Grandalo and Calliope, genera of warblers, Uragus, a finch allied to the North American cardinals, and Crossoptilon, a remarkable group of pheasants.

118

Almost all the genera of central and northern Europe are found here, and give quite a European character to the ornithology, though a considerable number of the species are different. There are a few Oriental forms, such as Abrornis and Larvivora (warblers); with Ceriornis and Ithaginis, genera of pheasants, which reach the snow-line in the Himalayas and thus just enter this sub-region, but as they do not penetrate farther north, they hardly serve to modify the exclusively Palæarctic character of its ornithology.

According to Middendorf, the extreme northern Asiatic birds. are the Alpine ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus); the snow-bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis); the raven, the gyrfalcon, and the snowyowl. Those which are characteristic of the barren "tundras," but which do not range so far north as the preceding are,-the willow-grouse (Lagopus albus); the Lapland-bunting (Plectrophanes

lapponica); the shore-lark (Ctocorys alpestris); the sand-martin (Cotyle riparia); and the sea-eagle (Haliaeetus 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. Carabida 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