CHAP. XVIII.] 



JAPAN AND FORMOSA. 



375 



33. Fteromys pectoralis. White-breasted Flying Squirrel. From South 



Formosa. 



34. Lepus sinensis. Chinese Hare. Inhabits South China. 



35. Manis dalmanni. Scaly Ant-eater. China and the Himalayas. 



The most interesting and suggestive feature connected with 

 these Formosan mammals is the identity or affinity of several of 

 them, with Indian or Malayan rather than with Chinese species. 

 We have the rock-monkey of Formosa allied to the rhesus 

 monkeys of India and Burma, not to those of South China and 

 Hainan. The tree civet {Helictis subaurantiaca) , and the small 

 flying squirrel (Sciuropterus kaleensis), are both allied to Hima- 

 layan species. Swinhoe's deer and goat-antelope are nearest to 

 Malayan species, as are the red and white-breasted flying squir- 

 rels ; while the fruit-bat, the wild pig, and the spotted deer are 

 all allied to peculiar Japanese species. The clouded tiger is a 

 Malay species unknown in China, while the Asiatic wild cat is 

 a native of the Himalayas and Malacca. It is clear, therefore, 

 that before Formosa was separated from the main land the above 

 named animals or their ancestral types must have ranged over 

 the intervening country as far as the Himalayas on the west, 

 Japan on the north,'<and Borneo or the Philippines on the south ; 

 and that after that event occurred, the conditions were so mate- 

 rially changed as to lead to the extinction of these species 

 in what are now the coast provinces of China, while they or 

 their modified descendants continued to exist in the dense forests 

 of the Himalayas and the Malay islands, and in such detached 

 islands as Formosa and Japan. We will now see what additional 

 light is thrown upon this subject by an examination of the 

 birds. 



List of the Land Birds peculiar to Formosa. 



TuRDiD^ (Thrushes). 



1. Turdus alhiceps. Allied to Chinese species. 



Sylvidi^ (Warblers). 



2. Cisticola volitans. Allied to C. schcenicola of India and China. 



3. Jlerbivox cantans. Sub-species of H. cantillaus of N. China and 



Japan. 



4. Notodela montium. Allied to N. leucura of the Himalayas ; no ally in 



China. 



