The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

226 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY [part hi.extremity of which should perhaps come in the Oriental region.The great richness of this sub-region compared with that ofSiberia is well shown by the fact, that a list of all the know nland-birdsof East Siberia, including Dahuria and the comparativelyfertile Amoor Valley, contains only 190 species ; whereasPere David's catalogue of the birds of Northern China withadjacent parts of East Thibet and Mongolia (a very muchsmaller area) contains for the same families 366 species. Of theSiberian birds more than 50 per cent, are European species, whilethose of the Manchurian sub-region comprise about half thatproportion of land-birds which are identical with those ofEurope.Japan is no doubt very imperfectly known, as only 134 landbirdsare recorded from it. Of these twenty- two are peculiarspecies, a number that would probably bediminished were theCorea to be explored. Of the genera, only nine are Indo-Malayan, while forty-three are Palsearctic.Plate III.— Scene on the Borders of North- West China andMongolia with Characteristic Mammalia and Birds. — Themountainous districts of Northern China, with the adjacentportions of Thibet and Mongolia, are the head-quarters of thepheasant tribe, many of the most beautiful and remarkablespecies being found there only.In the north-western provincesof China and the southern parts of Mongolia may be found thespecies figured. That in the foreground is the superb goldenpheasant (Thaumalea picta), a bird that can hardly be surpassedfor splendour of plumage by any denizen of the tropics. Thelarge bird perched above is the eared pheasant {Crossoptilonauriium), a species of comparatively sober plumage but ofremarkable and elegant form.In the middle distance is Pallas'ssand grouse {Syrrhaptes paradoxus), a curious bird, whose nativecountry seems to be the high plains of Northern Asia, but whichoften abounds near Pekin, and in 1863 astonished Europeanornithologists by appearing inconsiderable numbers in Centraland Western Europe, in every part of Great Britain, and evenm Ireland.The quadruped figured is the curious racoon dog (Nyctermtes