SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
with their comparative abundance in the not very 
distant districts of South-western Kansu, Ssi- 
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 Ssti-chuan and the neighbouring dis- 
tricts of South-western Kansu. Previous to this 
he collected threé 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 miodon), a cat (Felis catus), a wolf 
(Canis lupus tschiliensis), a fox (Vulpes vulpes), a 
marten (Martes flavigula borealis), and a badger 
(Meles leptorhynchus), were represented by only 
seventeen specimens. One mammal seen, but 
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