A THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CHINA 



mountain ranges to form deep gorges, or widening their beds 

 to form great valleys. In the north a temporate climate 

 prevails, a warm summer being followed by a bitterly cold 

 winter, while in the south tropical conditions are met with. 

 The climate of the north may be characterized as dry, that 

 of Central China as humid, that of the south-west as distinctly 

 wet. The result of all this is the presence of an extremely 

 varied fauna, not only in regard to the species and genera 

 of the families and orders represented, but in those families 

 and orders themselves. 



Another factor which helps to bring about this wonderful 

 variety in the fauna of China is the age of the country. It 

 is customary, when discussing the Chinese, to credit them 

 with a very ancient civilization, but geologists tell us that 

 the antiquity of China's civilization pales into insignificance 

 as a world wonder when compared with that of her rock 

 formations. It is not meant to suggest by this that the 

 animals found in the ancient rocks have survived to the 

 present time, but that in China we find animals still living 

 that belong to very old groups. Even in the case of warm- 

 blooded vertebrates, which, geologically speaking, are very 

 recent, we find species belonging to a bygone age, an age 

 that we call prehistoric. We find animals that belong to 

 an age when man used only stone impliments, and lived in 

 cave shelters, the Paleolithic age. Such animals have only 

 survived in these regions by taking shelter in the highest 

 mountain ranges. The famous takin (Budorcas) is one of 

 these, the giant panda, or cat-bear (Ailuropus melanoleucus) 

 another. The lagomorphs — pikas and hares — belong to this 

 group, as also do certain of the rodents, such as the allactaga, 

 or jumping rat, and some of the voles. 



Thus it has become customary for naturalists in the 

 museums of Europe and America to look for and expect 

 all kinds of remarkable forms of animals from China, and, 

 periodically, some such animal is discovered. This happens 

 in all branches of animal life. A typical example is that 

 of two species of flea. A rat was caught somewhere in 

 South China, and it was found to contain specimens of a 

 peculiar jigger flea in its ears. These specimens were lost, 

 and never again have similar ones been found. Quite by 

 accident some white maggot-like creatures were found in 

 the nostrils of a roedeer that I shot while on the Clark 

 Expedition in Shensi. These were kept, and later were 

 examined at the British Museum, when it was found that 

 they were enormously swollen females of a small black flea 

 that infested the coat of the deer upon which they were 



