CHAP. Ill 



ZOOLOGICAL REGIONS 



41 



China and East Thibet in about 32" N. latitude ; where, at 

 Moupin, a French missionary, Pere David, made extensive 

 collections showing this district to be at the junction of 

 the tropical and temperate faunas. Japan, as a whole, is 

 decidedly Pala^arctic, although its extreme southern portion, 

 owing to its mild insular climate and evergreen vegetation, 

 gives shelter to a number of tropical forms. 



Characteristic Features of the Palcmrctic Region. — Plaving 

 thus demonstrated the unity of the Palsearctic region by 

 tracing out the distribution of a large proportion of its 

 mammalia and birds, it only remains to show how far it is 

 characterised by peculiar groups such as genera and families, 

 and to say a few words on the lower forms of life which 

 prevail in it. 



Taking first the mammalia, we find this region distin- 

 guished by possessing two peculiar genera of Talpida) or 

 moles, the family being confined to the Paloearctic and 

 Nearctic regions. The true hedgehogs (Erinaceus) are also 

 characteristic, being only found elsewhere in South Africa 

 and in the northern part of the Oriental region. Among 

 Carnivora, the racoon-dog (Nyctereutes) of North-eastern 

 Asia, and the true badgers of the genus Meles are peculiar, 

 most other parts of the world possessing distinct genera of 

 badgers. It has six peculiar genera, or subgenera, of 

 deer ; seven peculiar genera of Bovidse, chiefly antelopes ; 

 while the entire group of goats and sheep, comprising 

 twenty-two species, is almost confined to it, one species only 

 occurring in the Rocky mountains of North America and an- 

 other in the Nilgiris of Southern India. Among the rodents 

 there are nine genera with twenty- seven species wholly 

 confined to it, while several others, as the hamsters, the 

 dormice, and the pikas, have only a few species elsewhere. 



In birds there are a large number of peculiar genera of 

 which we need mention only a few of the more important, 

 as the grass-hopper warblers (Locust ella) with seven species, 

 the Accentors with twelve species, and about a dozen other 

 genera of warblers, including the robins ; the bearded tit- 

 mouse and several allied genera ; the long-tailed titmice 

 forming the genus Acredula; the magpies, choughs, and 

 nut-crackers ; a host of finches, among which the bull- 

 finches (Pyrrhula) and the buntings (Emberiza) are the 



