Identifier: islandlifeorphen001wall (find matches)
Title: Island life : or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913
Subjects: Biogeography Islands Glacial epoch
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: California Academy of Sciences
Digitizing Sponsor: California Academy of Sciences Library

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cenielus.—The other caseis that of our reed bunting (Emleriza schcenichis), whichranges over almost all Europe and Western Asia as far asthe Yenesai valley and North-west India. It is thenreplaced by another smaller species, E. 2^(^sse7i7ia, whichranges eastwards to the Lena river, and in winter as farsouth as Amoy in China ; but in Japan the original speciesappears again, receiving a new name (E, pyrrliulina), butMr. Seebohm assures us that it is quite indistinguishablefrom the European bird. Although the distance betweenthese two portions of the species is not so great as in thelast example, being about 2,000 miles, in other respectsthe case is an interesting one, because the forms whichoccupy the intervening space are recognised by Mr.Seebohm himself as undoubted species.^ 1 Ihis, 1879, p. 40. In his Birds of the Japanese Empire (1890), Mr.Seebohm classes the Japanese and European forms as E. sch(^niclus,and thinks that their range is probably continuous across the twocontinents.
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CHAP. TV EVOLUTION THE KEY TO DISTRIBUTION 67 The Eurcpean and Jajpanese Jays.—Another case some-what resembling that of the marsh tit is afforded by theEuropean and Japanese jays (Gamdus glandarius and G.japoniacs). Our common jay inhabits the whole of Europeexcept the extreme north, but is not known to extend any-where into Asia, where it is represented by several quitedistinct species. (See Map, Frontispiece.) But the greatcentral island of Japan is inhabited by a jay (G» japonicus)which is very like ours, and was formerly classed as a sub-species only, in which case our jay would be considered tohave a discontinuous distribution. But the specificdistinctness of the Japanese bird is now universallyadmitted, and it is certainly a very remarkable fact thatamong the twelve species of jays which together rangeover all temperate Europe and Asia, one which is so closelyallied to our English bird should be found at the remotestpossible point from it. Looking at the map exhibiting tl:ed

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