356 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 1&23 



and the fur squirrel, which suggest a forest fauna, and connect this 

 part of the country, faunistically, with Europe by way of Manchuria 

 and Siberia. 



Central China, which may be taken as coinciding roughly with the 

 basin of the Yang-tse-Kiang, is again characterized by the presence 

 of certain forms, while when we come to the extreme south we find 

 typically Indian or Malayan animals appearing. The animals of 

 central China seem to have spread eastward and northward to a 

 certain extent, which accounts for an intrusion of oriental species 

 into Manchuria, as for instance the black bear and the sika deer. 

 These may, however, have arrived in Manchuria from south China 

 by way of the low-lying coastal provinces of the east. In any case 

 we are fairly safe in dividing China up into three main faunistic 

 areas, north, central, and south, noting that the northern animals 

 are partially Tartarian, or Mongolian, the animals of central China 

 being typically Chinese, and those of the south being partially Indian 

 or Malayan. And there we may leave the matter, since nothing is 

 to be gained by stressing the point too far. 



Before making a rapid survey of the more prominent and interest- 

 ing orders, families, genera, and species of animals occurring in China, 

 it would be well to consider briefly the work done upon our subject 

 by past field naturalists, experts in the museums of Europe and 

 America, and others, at the same time taking note of the literature 

 that is extant. The names of men like Pere David, a Jesuit mis- 

 sionary who traveled over a great part of China studying the fauna 

 and making collections which were sent to the Paris Museum, and 

 Robert Swinhoe, a British consul, who also was a keen student and 

 collector, stand foremost in the annals of the zoology of this coun- 

 try. David's material was worked out, as regards the mammals, by 

 Milne-Edwards, the results being published in a fine tome called 

 " Recherches sur les Mammiferes," and, as regards the birds, by him- 

 self and Oustalet in their "Les Oiseaux de la Chine." Swinhoe's 

 writings appeared for the most part in the Ibis, the organ of the 

 British Ornithologists' Union, sometimes in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society of London. Since their time very little sound 

 work was done upon the mammals till about the year 1907, when 

 Mr. Malcolm P. Anderson, working for the British Museum, came 

 to China and commenced a series of explorations, making magnificent 

 collections, which were worked out by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, of that 

 institution, who published numerous papers in the P. Z. S. and the 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History. The birds, on the 

 other hand, have claimed many devoted students, amongst the most 

 famous of whom are C. B. Rickett, J. D. de La Touche, and F. W. 

 Styan. These ornithologists have contributed very considerably to 



