Island Life Part 30

39. _Cervus sika._ A peculiar deer allied to _C. pseudaxis_ of Formosa and _C. mantchuricus_ of Northern China.

40. _Nemorhedus crispa._ A goat-like antelope allied to _N. sumatra.n.u.s_ of Sumatra, and _N. Swinhoei_ of Formosa.

41. _Sus leucomystax._ A wild boar allied to _S. taera.n.u.s_ of Formosa.

We thus find that no less than twenty-six out of the forty-one j.a.panese mammals are peculiar, and if we omit the aerial bats (nine in number), as well as the marine sea-otter, we shall have remaining only thirty strictly land mammalia, of which twenty-five are peculiar, or five-sixths of the whole. Nor does this represent all their speciality; for we have a mole differing in its dent.i.tion from the European mole; another superficially resembling but quite distinct from an American species; a peculiar genus of otters; and an antelope whose nearest allies are in Formosa and Sumatra.

The importance of these facts will {396} be best understood when we have examined the corresponding affinities of the birds of j.a.pan.

_Birds._--Owing to the recent researches of some English residents we have probably a fuller knowledge of the birds than of the mammalia; yet the number of true land-birds ascertained to inhabit the islands either as residents or migrants is only 200, which is less than might be expected considering the highly favourable conditions of mild climate, luxuriant vegetation, and abundance of insect-life, and the extreme riches of the adjacent continent,--Mr. Swinhoe's list of the birds of China containing more than 400 land species, after deducting all which are peculiar to the adjacent islands. Only seventeen species, or about one-twelfth of the whole, are now considered to be peculiar to j.a.pan proper; while seventeen more are peculiar to the various outlying small islands const.i.tuting the Bonin and Loo Choo groups. Even of these, six or seven are cla.s.sed by Mr.

Seebohm as probably sub-species or slightly modified forms of continental birds, so that ten only are well-marked species, undoubtedly distinct from those of any other country.

The great majority of the birds are decidedly temperate forms identical with those of Northern Asia and Europe; while no less than forty of the species of land-birds are also found in Britain, or are such slight modifications of British species that the difference is only perceptible to a trained ornithologist. The following list of the land-birds common to Britain and j.a.pan is very interesting, when we consider that these countries are separated by the whole extent of the European and Asiatic continents, or by almost exactly one-fourth of the circ.u.mference of the globe:--

LAND BIRDS COMMON TO GREAT BRITAIN AND j.a.pAN.[94]

(_Either Identical Species or Representative sub-species._)

1. Goldcrest _Regulus cristatus_ sub-sp. _orientalis_.

2. Marsh t.i.t _Parus pal.u.s.tris_ sub-sp. _j.a.ponicus_.

3. Coal t.i.t _Parus ater_ sub-sp. _pekinensis_.

4. Long-tailed t.i.t _Acredula caudata_ (the sub-sp. _rosea_, is British).

{397} 5. Common creeper _Certhia familiaris._ 6. Nuthatch _Sitta europaea_ sub-sp. _amurensis._ 7. Carrion crow _Corvus corone._ 8. Nutcracker _Nucifraga caryocatactes._ 9. Magpie _Pica caudata._ 10. Palla.s.s' grey shrike _Lanius excubitor_ sub-sp. _major._ 11. Waxwing _Ampelis garrulus._ 12. Grey wagtail _Motacilla boarula_ sub-sp. _melanope._ 13. Alpine Pipit _Anthus spinoletta_ sub-sp. _j.a.ponicus._ 14. Skylark _Alauda arvensis_ sub-sp. _j.a.ponica._ 15. Common hawfinch _Coccothraustes vulgaris._ 16. Common Crossbill _Loxia curvirostra._ 17. Siskin _Fringilla spinus._ 18. Mealy redpole ,, _linaria._ 19. Brambling ,, _montifringilla._ 20. Tree sparrow _Pa.s.ser monta.n.u.s._ 21. Reed bunting _Emberiza schoeniculus_ sub-sp.

_pal.u.s.tris._ 22. Rustic bunting ,, _rustica._ 23. Snow bunting ,, _nivalis._ 24. Chimney swallow _Hirundo rustica_ sub-sp. _gutturalis._ 25. Sand martin _Cotyle riparia._ 26. Great spotted woodp.e.c.k.e.r _Picus major_ sub-sp. _j.a.ponicus._ 27. Lesser spotted woodp.e.c.k.e.r ,, _minor._ 28. Wryneck _Jynx torquilla._ 29. Hoopoe _Upupa epops._ 30. Blue rock pigeon _Columba livia._ 31. Cuckoo _Cuculus canorus._ 32. Kingfisher _Alcedo ispida_ sub-sp. _bengalensis._ 33. Eagle owl _Bubo maximus._ 34. Snowy owl _Surnia nyctea._ 35. Long-eared owl _Strix otus._ 36. Short-eared owl ,, _brachyotus._ 37. Scops owl _Scops scops._ 38. Jer falcon _Falco gyrfalco._ 39. Peregrine falcon ,, _peregrinus._ 40. Hobby ,, _subbuteo._ 41. Merlin _Falco aesalon._ 42. Kestrel _Tinnunculus alaudarius_ sub-sp.

_j.a.ponicus._ 43. Osprey _Pandion haliactus._ 44. Honey-buzzard _Pernis apivorus._ 45. White-tailed eagle _Haliaetus albicilla._ 46. Golden eagle _Aquila chrysaetus._ 47. Common buzzard _Buteo vulgaris_ sub-sp. _plumipes._ 48. Hen-harrier _Circus cyaneus._ 49. Marsh-harrier ,, _aeruginosus._ 50. Gos-hawk _Astur palumbarius._ 51. Sparrow-hawk _Accipiter nisus._ 52. Ptarmigan _Tetrao mutus._ 53. Common quail _Coturnix communis._

But even these fifty-three species by no means fairly represent the amount of _resemblance_ between Britain and {398} j.a.pan as regards birds; for there are also thrushes, robins, stonechats, wrens, hedge-sparrows, sedge-warblers, jays, starlings, swifts, goatsuckers, and some others, which, though distinct _species_ from our own, have the same general appearance, and give a familiar aspect to the ornithology. There remains, however, a considerable body of Chinese and Siberian species, which link the islands to the neighbouring parts of the continent; and there are also a few which are Malayan or Himalayan rather than Chinese, and thus afford us an interesting problem in distribution.

The seventeen species and sub-species which are altogether peculiar to j.a.pan proper, are for the most part allied to birds of North China and Siberia, but three are decidedly tropical, and one of them--a fruit pigeon (_Treron sieboldi_)--has no close ally nearer than Burmah and the Himalayas. In the following list the affinities of the species are indicated wherever they have been ascertained:--

LIST OF THE SPECIES OF LAND BIRDS PECULIAR TO j.a.pAN.

1. _Accentor rubidus._ Nearly allied to our hedge-sparrow, and less closely to the Central Asian _A. immaculatus._

(1a. _Hypsipetes amaurotis._ Migrates to the Corea, otherwise peculiar.)

2. _Zosterops j.a.ponica._ Allied to two Chinese species.

3. _Lusciniola pryeri._

4. _Garrulus j.a.ponicus._ Allied to the Siberian and British Jays.

5. _Fringilla kawarahiba._ Allied to the Chinese greenfinch.

6. _Emberiza ciopsis._ Allied to the E. Siberian bunting _E. cioides_, of which it may be considered a sub-species.

7. ,, _yessoensis._ A distinct species.

8. ,, _personata._ A sub-species of _E. spodocephala._

9. _Gecinus awokera._ A distinct species of green woodp.e.c.k.e.r.

10. _Picus namiyei._ Allied to a Formosan species.

11. _Treron sieboldi._ Allied to _T. sphenura_ of the Himalayas, and to a Formosan species.

12. _Carpophaga ianthina._ A distinct species of fruit-pigeon.

13. _Bubo blakistoni._ Allied to a Philippine eagle-owl.

14. _Scops semitorgues._ A distinct species.

15. _Phasia.n.u.s versicolor._ A distinct species.

16. ,, _soemmeringi._ A distinct species.

17. ,, _scintillaus._ A sub-species of the last.

The large number of seventeen peculiar species in the outlying Bonin and Loo Choo Islands is an interesting feature of j.a.panese ornithology. The comparative remoteness of {399} these islands, their mild sub-tropical climate and luxuriant vegetation, and perhaps the absence of violent storms and their being situated out of the line of continental migration, seem to be the conditions that have favoured the specialisation of modified types adapted to the new environment.

_j.a.pan Birds Recurring in Distant Areas._--The most interesting feature in the ornithology of j.a.pan is, undoubtedly, the presence of several species which indicate an alliance with such remote districts as the Himalayas, the Malay Islands, and Europe. Among the peculiar species, the most remarkable of this cla.s.s are,--the fruit-pigeon of the genus Treron, entirely unknown in China, but reappearing in Formosa and j.a.pan; the Hypsipetes, whose nearest ally is in South China at a distance of nearly 500 miles; and the jay (_Garrulus j.a.ponicus_), whose near ally (_G. glandarius_) inhabits Europe only, at a distance of 3,700 miles. But even more extraordinary are the following non-peculiar species:--_Spizaetus orientalis_, a crested eagle, inhabiting the Himalayas, Formosa, and j.a.pan, but unknown in Southern or Eastern China; _Ceryle guttata_, a spotted kingfisher, almost confined to the Himalayas and j.a.pan, though occurring rarely in Central China; and _Halcyon coromanda_, a brilliant red kingfisher inhabiting Northern India, the Malay Islands to Celebes, Formosa, and j.a.pan. We have here an excellent ill.u.s.tration of the favourable conditions which islands afford both for species which elsewhere live further south (_Halcyon coromanda_), and for the preservation in isolated colonies of species which are verging towards extinction; for such we must consider the above-named eagle and kingfisher, both confined to a very limited area on the continent, but surviving in remote islands. Referring to our account of the birth, growth, and death of a species (in Chapter IV.) it can hardly be doubted that the _Ceryle guttata_ formerly ranged from the Himalayas to j.a.pan, and has now almost died out in the intervening area owing to geographical and physical changes, a subject which will be better discussed when we have examined the interesting fauna of the island of Formosa. {400}

The other orders of animals are not yet sufficiently known to enable us to found any accurate conclusions upon them. The main facts of their distribution have already been given in my _Geographical Distribution of Animals_ (Vol I., pp. 227-231), and they sufficiently agree with the birds and mammalia in showing a mixture of temperate and tropical forms with a considerable proportion of peculiar species. Owing to the comparatively easy pa.s.sage from the northern extremity of j.a.pan through the island of Saghalien to the mainland of Asia, a large number of temperate forms of insects and birds are still able to enter the country, and thus diminish the proportionate number of peculiar species. In the case of mammals this is more difficult; and the large proportion of specific difference in their case is a good indication of the comparatively remote epoch at which j.a.pan was finally separated from the continent. How long ago this separation took place we cannot of course tell, but we may be sure it was much longer than in the case of our own islands, and therefore probably in the earlier portion of the Pliocene period.

FORMOSA.

Among recent continental islands there is probably none that surpa.s.ses in interest and instructiveness the Chinese island named by the Portuguese, Formosa, or "The Beautiful." Till quite recently it was a _terra incognita_ to naturalists, and we owe almost all our present knowledge of it to a single man, the late Mr. Robert Swinhoe, who, in his official capacity as one of our consuls in China, visited it several times between 1856 and 1866, besides residing on it for more than a year. During this period he devoted all his spare time and energy to the study of natural history, more especially of the two important groups, birds and mammals; and by employing a large staff of native collectors and hunters, he obtained a very complete knowledge of its fauna. In this case, too, we have the great advantage of a very thorough knowledge of the adjacent parts of the continent, in great part due to Mr. Swinhoe's own exertions during the twenty years of his service in {401} that country. We possess, too, the further advantage of having the whole of the available materials in these two cla.s.ses collected together by Mr. Swinhoe himself after full examination and comparison of specimens; so that there is probably no part of the world (if we except Europe, North America, and British India) of whose warm-blooded vertebrates we possess fuller or more accurate knowledge than we do of those of the coast districts of China and its islands.[95]

_Physical Features of Formosa._--The island of Formosa is nearly half the size of Ireland, being 220 miles long, and from twenty to eighty miles wide. It is traversed down its centre by a fine mountain range, which reaches an alt.i.tude of about 8,000 feet in the south and 12,000 feet in the northern half of the island, and whose higher slopes and valleys are everywhere clothed with magnificent forests. It is crossed by the line of the Tropic of Cancer a little south of its centre; and this position, combined with its lofty mountains, gives it an unusual variety of tropical and temperate climates. These circ.u.mstances are all highly favourable to the preservation and development of animal life, and from what we already know of its productions, it seems probable that few, if any islands of approximately the same size and equally removed from a continent will be found to equal it in the number and variety of their higher animals. The outline map (at page 392) shows that Formosa is connected with the mainland by a submerged bank, the hundred-fathom line including it along with Hainan to the south-west and j.a.pan on the north-east; while the line of two-hundred fathoms includes also the Madjico-Sima and Loo-Choo Islands, and may, perhaps, mark out approximately the last great extension of the Asiatic continent, the submergence of which isolated these islands from the mainland.

_Animal Life of Formosa._--We are at present acquainted {402} with 35 species of mammalia, and 128 species of land-birds from Formosa, fourteen of the former and forty-three of the latter being peculiar, while the remainder inhabit also some part of the continent or adjacent islands. This proportion of peculiar species is perhaps (as regards the birds) the highest to be met with in any island which can be cla.s.sed as both continental and recent, and this, in all probability, implies that the epoch of separation is 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 a.n.a.logous phenomena, with the exception that we have here two peculiar and very interesting genera.

But besides the amount of specific and generic modification 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. sancti-johannis_ of South China.

2. _Pteropus formosus._ A fruit-bat closely allied to the j.a.panese 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 insularis._ A blind mole of a peculiar species.

{403} 7. Sorex murinus. Musk Rat. China.

8. Sorex sp. A shrew, undescribed.

9. Erinaceus sp. A Hedgehog, undescribed.

10. Ursus tibeta.n.u.s. The Tibetan Bear. Himalayas and North China.

11. _Helictis subaurantiaca._ The orange-tinted Tree Civet. Allied to _H. nipalensis_ of the Himalayas more than to _H. moschata_ of China.

12. Martes flavigula, var. The yellow-necked Marten. India, China.

13. Felis macroscelis. The clouded Tiger of Siam and Malaya.

14. Felis viverrina. The Asiatic wild Cat. Himalayas and Malacca.