Island Life; Or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and FlorasWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
Island Life; Or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Biogeography; Glacial epoch; Island ecology
Baluchistan should probably go with these. The boundary in the
north-western part of India is again difficult to determine, but it {40}
cannot be far one way or the other from the river Indus as far up as
Attock, opposite the mouth of the Cabool river. Here it will bend to the
south-east, passing a little south of Cashmeer, and along the southern
slopes of the Himalayas into East Thibet and China, at heights varying from
9,000 to 11,000 feet according to soil, aspect, and shelter. It may,
perhaps, be defined as extending to the upper belt of forests as far as
coniferous trees prevail; but the temperate and tropical faunas are here so
intermingled that to draw any exact parting line is impossible. The two
faunas are, however, very distinct. In and above the pine woods there are
abundance of warblers of northern genera, with wrens, numerous titmice, and
a great variety of buntings, grosbeaks, bullfinches and rosefinches, all
more or less nearly allied to the birds of Europe and Northern Asia; while
a little lower down we meet with a host of peculiar birds allied to those
of tropical Asia and the Malay Islands, but often of distinct genera. There
can be no doubt, therefore, of the existence here of a pretty sharp line of
demarkation between the temperate and tropical faunas, though this line
will be so irregular, owing to the complex system of valleys and ridges,
that in our present ignorance of much of the country it cannot be marked in
detail on any map.
Further east in China it is still more difficult to determine the limits of
the region, owing to the great intermixture of migrating birds; tropical
forms passing northwards in summer as far as the Amoor river, while the
northern forms visit every part of China in winter. From what we know,
however, of the distribution of some of the more typical northern and
southern species, we are able to fix the 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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