CHAP. Ill ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS 41 



China and East Thibet in about 32° N. latitude ; where, at 

 Moupin, a French missionary, Pere David, made extensive 

 collections showing this district to be at the junction of the 

 tropical and temperate faunas. Japan, as a whole, is 

 decidedly Pala3arctic, although its extreme southern portion, 

 owing to its mild insular climate and evergreen vegetation, 

 gives shelter to a number of tropical forms. 



Characteristic Features of the Falccaretic Pvcgion. — Ha vino 

 thus demonstrated the unity of the Palsearctic region by 

 tracing out the distribution of a large proportion of its 

 mammalia and birds, it only remains to show how far it is 

 characterised by peculiar groups such as genera and families, 

 and to say a few words on the lower forms of life which 

 prevail in it. 



Taking first the mammalia, we find this region is 

 distinguished by its possession of the entire family of 

 TaljDidse or moles, consisting of eight genera and sixteen 

 species, all of which are confined to it except one which is 

 found in North-west America, and two which extend to 

 Assam and Formosa. Among carnivorous animals the 

 lynxes (nine species) and the badgers (two species) are 

 peculiar to it in the old world, while in the new the lynxes 

 are found only in the colder regions of North America. 

 It has six peculiar genera (with seven species) of deer ; 

 seven peculiar genera of Bovidse, chiefly antelopes ; while 

 the entire group of goats and sheep, comj^rising twenty-two 

 species, is almost confined to it, one species only occurring 

 in the Rocky Mountains of North America and another 

 in the Nilgiris of Southern India. Among the rodents 

 there are nine genera, with twenty-seven species wholly 

 confined to it, while several others, as the voles, the dor- 

 mice, and the 23ikas, have only a few species elsewhere. 



In birds there are a large number of j^eculiar genera of 

 which Ave need only mention a few of the more important, 

 as the grasshojDper-warblers (Locustella) with seven species, 

 the Accentors with twelve species, and about a dozen other 

 genera of warblers, including the robins ; the bearded tit- 

 mouse and several allied genera ; the long-tailed titmice 

 forming the genus Acredula ; the magpies, chouglis, and 

 nutcrackers ; a host of finches, among which the bull- 

 finches (Pyrrhula) and the buntings (Emberiza) are the 



