400 ISLAND LIFE 



The other orders of animals are not yet sufficiently- 

 known to enable us to found any accurate conclusions upon 

 theni. The main facts of their distribution have already 

 been given in my Gcografpliical Bistrihntion of Animals 

 (Vol I., pf). 227-231), and they sufficiently agree with "the 

 birds and mammalia in showing a mixture of temperate 

 and tropical forms with a considerable proportion of 

 peculiar sjDecies. Owing to the comparatively easy passage 

 from the northern extremity of Japan through the island 

 of Saghalien to the mainland of Asia, a large number of 

 temperate forms of insects and birds are still able to enter 

 the country, and thus diminish the proportionate number 

 of peculiar species. In the case of mammals this is more 

 difficult ; and the large j)roportion of specific difference in . 

 their case is a good indication of the comparatively remote 

 epoch at which Japan was finally separated from the 

 continent. How long ago this separation took place we 

 cannot of course tell, but we may be sure it was much 

 longer than in the case of our own islands, and therefore 

 probably in the earlier portion of the Pliocene period. 



FOEMOSA. 



Among recent continental islands there is probably none 

 that surpasses in interest and instructiveness the Chinese 

 island named by the Portuguese, Formosa, or " The 

 Beautiful." Till quite recently it was a terra incognita to 

 naturalists, and we owe almost all our jDresent knowledge 

 of it to a single man, the late Mr. Robert Swinhoe, who, in 

 his official capacity as one of our consuls in China, visited 

 it several times between 1856 and 1866, besides residing 

 on it for more than a year. During this period he devoted 

 all his spare time and energy to the study of natural 

 history, more especially of the two important groups, birds 

 and mammals; and by employing a large staff of native 

 collectors and hunters, he obtained a very complete know- 

 ledge of its fauna. In this case, too, we have the great 

 advantage of a very thorough knowledge of the adjacent 

 parts of the continent, in great part due to Mr. SAvinhoe's 

 own exertions during the twenty years of his service in 



