396 ISLAND LIFE part ii 



be best understood when we have exammed the corre- 

 sjoonding affinities of the birds of Jaj^an. 



Birds. — Owing to the recent researches of some English 

 residents we have probably a fuller knowledge of the birds 

 than of the mammalia ; yet the number of true land-birds 

 ascertained to inhabit the islands either as residents or 

 migrants is only 200, which is less than might be expected 

 considering the highly favourable conditions of mild climate, 

 luxuriant vegetation, and abundance of insect-life, and the 

 extreme riches of the adjacent continent, — Mr. Swinhoe's 

 list of the birds of China containing more than 400 land 

 species, after deducting all which are peculiar to the adjacent 

 islands. Only seventeen species, or about one-twelfth of 

 the whole, are now considered to be peculiar to Japan 

 projDer ; while seventeen more are peculiar to the various 

 outlying small islands constituting the Benin and Loo Choo 

 groups. Even of these, six or seven are classed by Mr. See- 

 bohm as probably sub-species or slightly modified forms of 

 continental birds, so that ten only are well-marked species, 

 undoubtedly distinct from those of any other country. 



The great majority of the birds are decidedly temperate 

 forms identical with those of Northern Asia and Europe ; 

 while no less than forty of the species of land-birds are also 

 found in Britain, or are such slight modifications of British 

 species that the difference is only perceptible to a trained 

 ornithologist. The following list of the land-birds common 

 to Britain and Japan is very interesting, when we consider 

 that these countries are separated by the whole extent of 

 the European and Asiatic continents, or by almost exactly 

 one-fourth of the circumference of the "-lobe : — 



Land Birds Common to Great Britain and Japan. ^ 

 {Eitlicr Identical Species or Reijresentative sub-species.) 



1 . Goldcrest Regulus cristatus sub-sp. orientalis. 



2. JMarsli tit Parus i^lustris sub-sp. japonicus. 



3. Coal tit Parus atcr sub-sp. pekinensis. 



4. Long-tailed tit Acredula caudata (the sub-sp. rosea is 



British). 



^ Extracted from Messrs. Blakistou and Fryer's Catalogue of Birds of 

 Japan {Ibis, 1878, p. 209), with Mr. Seebohm's additions and corrections 

 in his Bi7rls of tJic Jajjanese Empire 1890. Accidental stragglers are not 

 reckoned as British birds. 



