CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Remarkable Contrasts in distribution of Animals — Britain and Japan — 

 Australia and New Zealand — Bali and Lombok — Florida and Bahama 

 Islands — Brazil and Africa — Borneo, Madagascar, and Celebes — 

 Problems in distribution to be found in every country — Can be solved 

 only by the combination of many distinct lines of inquiry, biological 

 and physical — Islands offer the best subjects for the study of distribu- 

 tion — Outline of the subjects to be discussed in the present volume. 



When an Englishman travels by the nearest sea-route from 

 Great Britain to Northern Japan he passes by countries very 

 unlike his own, both in aspect and natural productions. The 

 sunny isles of the Mediterranean, the sands and date-palms of 

 Egypt, the arid rocks of Aden, the cocoa groves of Ceylon, the 

 tiger-haunted jungles of Malacca and Singapore, the fertile 

 plains and volcanic peaks of Luzon, the forest-clad mountains 

 of Eormosa, and the bare hills of China, pass successively in 

 review ; till after a circuitous voyage of thirteen thousand miles 

 he finds himself at Hakodadi in Japan. He is now separated 

 from his starting-point by the whole width of Europe and 

 Northern Asia, by an almost endless succession of plains and 

 mountains, arid deserts or icy plateaux, yet when he visits the 

 interior of the country he sees so many familiar natural objects 

 that he can hardly help fancying he is close to his home. He 

 finds the woods and fields tenanted by tits, hedge-sparrows, 

 wrens, wagtails, larks, redbreasts, thrushes, buntings, and house- 

 sparrows, some absolutely identical with our own feathered 

 friends, others so closely resembling them that it requires a 



