66 



ISLAND LIFE 



PART I 



varieties are found, which have been named respectively 

 P.japonims and P. camschatkensis and another P. songarus 

 in Turkestan and Mongolia. Now it all depends upon 

 these forms being classed as sub-species or as true species 

 whether this is or is not a case of discontinuous specific 

 distribution. If Parus horecclis is a distinct species from 

 Parus pcdustris, as it is reckoned in Gray's Hand List of 

 Birds, and also in Sharpe and Dresser's Birds of Europe, 

 then Parus pahostris has a most remarkable discontinuous 

 distribution, as shown in the accompanying map, one 

 portion of its area comprising Central and South Europe 

 and Asia Minor, the other an undefined tract in Northern 

 China, the two portions being thus situated in about the 

 same latitude and having a very similar climate, but with 

 a distance of about 4,000 miles between them. If, how- 

 ever, these two forms are reckoned as sub-species only, 

 then the area of the species becomes continuous, while 

 only one of its varieties or sub-species has a discontinuous 

 area. It is a curious fact that P. palustris and P. horecclis 

 are found together in Southern Scandinavia and in some 

 parts of Central Europe, and are said to differ somewhat 

 in their note and their habits, as well as in colouration. 



Discontinuity of Emheriza sdtceniclus. — The other case 

 is that of our reed bunting (Emhcriza schoiniclus), which 

 ranges over almost all Europe and Western Asia as far as 

 the Yenesai valley and North-west India. It is then 

 replaced by another smaller species, E. jpasserina, which 

 ranges eastwards to the Lena river, and in winter as far 

 south as Amoy in China ; but in Japan the original species 

 appears again, receiving a new name {E. 2yyrrliulina), but 

 Mr. Seebohm assures us that it is quite indistinguishable 

 from the European bird. Although the distance between 

 these two portions of the species is not so great as in the 

 last example, being about 2,000 miles, in other respects 

 the case is an interesting one, because the forms which 

 occupy the intervening space are recognised by Mr. 

 Seebohm himself as undoubted species.^ 



1 Ihis, 1879, p. 40. In his Birds of the Japanese Umpire (1890), Mr. 

 Seebohm classes the Japanese and European forms as E. schmniclus, 

 and thinks that their range is probably continuoiis across the two 

 continents. 



