SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 



with their comparative abundance in the not very 

 distant districts of South-western Kansu, Ssu- 

 chuan, Corea, and the Japanese Islands. Re- 

 cently Mr. Anderson has collected no fewer than 

 nine species of shrews, and two moles, besides 

 the remarkable Neotetracus sinensis from the 

 province of Ssii-chuan and the neighbouring dis- 

 tricts of South-western Kansu. Previous to this 

 he collected three species of shrews and two moles 

 in Corea, and no less than eight species and sub- 

 species of moles, and eleven species and subspecies 

 of shrews in Japan and the neighbouring islands. 



Judging from what we know of the climatic 

 conditions of these several districts, one is natur- 

 ally led to suppose that Insectivores require a 

 country with a humid atmosphere, and damp, well 

 vegetated soil wherein to thrive. 



This is not so much the case with rodents, so 

 that we find this class of mammals greatly pre- 

 dominating throughout the whole region along 

 the Sino-Mongolian borderland. Of the thirty- 

 one species secured on our journey, twenty-five 

 were rodents, represented by three hundred and 

 twenty-four specimens, while the seven remaining 

 species, including a bat (Myotis sp.), the hedgehog 

 (Erinaceus 7niodon), a cat {Felis catus), a wolf 

 (Canis lupus tschiliensis), a fox {Vulpes vulpes), a 

 marten {Maries flavigula borealis), and a badger 

 {Meles leptorhynchus), were represented by only 

 seventeen specimens. One mammal seen, but 



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