limits of the Palaearctic region a
little south of Shanghai on the east coast. Several tropical genera come as
far north as Ningpo or even Shanghai, but rarely beyond; while in Formosa
and Amoy tropical forms predominate. Such decidedly northern forms as
bullfinches and hawfinches are found at Shanghai; hence we may commence the
boundary line on the coast between Shanghai and Ningpo, but inland it
probably bends a little southward, and then northward to the mountains and
valleys of West {41} China and East Thibet in about 32deg N. latitude;
where, at Moupin, a French missionary, Pere David, made extensive
collections showing this district to be at the junction of the tropical and
temperate faunas. Japan, as a whole, is decidedly Palaearctic, although its
extreme southern portion, owing to its mild insular climate and evergreen
vegetation, gives shelter to a number of tropical forms.

_Characteristic Features of the Palaearctic Region._--Having thus
demonstrated the unity of the Palaearctic region by tracing out the
distribution of a large proportion of its mammalia and birds, it only
remains to show how far it is characterised by peculiar groups such as
genera and families, and to say a few words on the lower forms of life
which prevail in it.

Taking first the mammalia, we find this region distinguished by possessing
two peculiar genera of Talpidae or moles, the family being confined to the
Palaearctic and Nearctic regions. The true hedgehogs (Erinaceus) are also
characteristic, being only found elsewhere in South Africa and in the
northern part of the Oriental region. Among Carnivora, the racoon-dog
(Nyctereutes) of North-eastern Asia, and the true badgers of the genus
Meles are peculiar, most other parts of the world possessing distinct
genera of badgers. It has six peculiar genera, or subgenera, of deer; seven
peculiar genera of Bovidae, chiefly antelopes; while the entire group of
goats and sheep, comprising twenty-two species, is almost confined to it,
one species only occurring in the Rocky mountains of North America and
another in the Nilgiris of Southern India. Among the rodents there are nine
genera with twenty-seven species wholly confined to it, while several
others, as the hamsters, the dormice, and the pikas, have only a few
species elsewhere.

In birds there are a large number of peculiar genera of which we need
mention only a few of the more important, as the grass-hopper warblers
(Locustella) with sev