CHAT>. XVIII 



JAPAN AND FORMOSA 



402 



with 35 species of mammalia, and 128 species of land-birds 

 from Formosa, fourteen of the former and thirty-five of the 

 latter being peculiar, while the remainder inhabit also 

 some part of the continent or adjacent islands This 

 proportion of peculiar species is (as regards the birds) a 

 very high one for an island which can be classed as both 

 continental and recent, and is situated so close to a 

 continent, implying that the epoch of separation was 

 somewhat remote. It was not, however, remote enough 

 to reach back to a time when the continental fauna was 

 very different from what it is now, for we find all the 

 chief types of living Asiatic mammalia represented in this 

 small island. Thus we have monkeys ; insectivora ; 

 numerous carnivora; pigs, deer, antelopes, and cattle 

 among ungulata ; numerous rodents, and the edentate 

 Manis, — a very fair representation of Asiatic mammals, 

 all being of known genera, and of species either absolutely 

 identical with some still living elsewhere or very closely 

 allied to them. The birds exhibit analogous phenomena, 

 with the exception that we have here one peculiar 

 genus. 



But besides the amount of specific and generic modifica- 

 tion that has occurred, we have another indication of the 

 lapse of time in the peculiar relations of a large proportion 

 of the Formosan animals, which show that a great change 

 in the distribution of Asiatic species must have taken 

 place since the separation of the island from the continent. 

 Before pointing these out it will be advantageous to give 

 lists of the mammalia and peculiar birds of the island, as 

 we shall have frequent occasion to refer to them. 



List of the Mammalia of Formosa, (The peculiar species are printed 



in italics.) 



1. Macacus cyclopis. A Rock-monkey more allied to M. rhesus of India 



than to M. sandi-johannis of South China. 



2. Pteropus formosus. A Fruit-bat closely allied to the Japanese species. 



None of the genus are found in China. 



3. Vesperugo abramus. China. 



4. Vespertilio formosus. Black and orange Bat. China. 



5. Nyctinomus cestonii. Large-eared Bat. China, S. Europe. 



6. Talpa wogura. A blind Mole. Japan. 



