It is possible that the desert belt has been traversed in other places to the west of the great highland area of Tibet, and that some present day Euro-Siberian forms have reached China by-way of India, but, judging from the species themselves, it appears more likely that they reached India by the Manchurian route via North China.
Tartarian Sub-region The Tartarian Sub-region consists of both desert and steppe country, as well as certain arid uplands. It has a very characteristic fauna, consisting of typical desert and steppe forms, such as the camel, the wild ass, Przevalski's wild horse, the wild sheep, gazelles, gerbils, jerboas and allactagas, ground-squirrels, sandgrouse, larks, certain lizards and snakes and various kinds of insects. All of these except the insects are characterized by their yellowish, buff or sandy colour, although some of them are more prevalent on the grassy steppes, others in the sandy areas. A peculiar animal typical of this zone is the molerat (Myospalax), whose life is spent burrowing under ground. The rivers contain few kinds of fish, mainly species of carp or loach, while the flora is very characteristic—coarse grasses, low spiny leguminous shrubs, a few willows along the streams and tamarisk trees. As already indicated, in North China this zone contains elements deep valleys of the Mekong, Salween., and Irrawaddy Rivers a considerable distance to the north. Here is found the Derbian parakeet, the most northerly member of the parrot family.
In mentioning the various forms of animal life that are to be found in the several zones that affect China certain very important species have been omitted. Chief amongst these is the tiger. This is because it is not at all easy to assign such forms to any one zone. The tiger ranges from the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian region in the west through Persia and China to the Amur and Ussuri regions in the east and Southern Siberia in the north, as well as southward to India and the Malayan Archipelago. In this rather universal distribution it agrees with several other forms. The leopard is another form that enjoys a wide range, also the wolf, the fox, the wild pig, many birds and innumerable insects. Because of this they do not help in determining faunal zones, and so may be ignored in this discussion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.