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708 measures, the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if it be the will of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States.

Fellow-citizens! the momentous case is before you. On your undivided support of your government depends the decision of the great question it involves, whether your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessing it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be such as to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to their defense, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children.

May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with which he has favored ours may not, by the madness of party, or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost, and may His wise providence bring those who have produced this crisis to see the folly, before they feel the misery, of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate his designs, he has chosen, as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, having signed the same with my hand.

Done at the City of Washington, this 10th day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and of the independence of the United States the fifty-seventh.

ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President,

, Secretary of State. ABSTRACT OF THE DRED SCOTT DECISION, 1857.

. . . But, in making this objection, we think the peculiar and limited jurisdiction of courts of the United States has not been adverted to. This peculiar and limited jurisdiction has made it necessary, in these courts, to adopt different rules and principles of pleading, so far as jurisdiction is concerned, from those which regulate courts of common law in England, and in the different states of the Union which have adopted the common-law rules. . ..

This difference arises, as we have said, from the peculiar character of the government of the United States. For although it is sovereign and supreme in its appropriate sphere of action, yet it does not possess all the powers which usually belong to the sovereignty of a nation. Certain specified powers, enumerated in the Constitution, have been conferred upon it; and neither the

title: Page:The Federalist (Ford).djvu/786


text:
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23

as amended by

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Amendment Act, No. 2 of 1994 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Act, No. 3 of 1994 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Third Amendment Act, No. 13 of 1994 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Fourth Amendment Act, No. 14 of 1994 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Fifth Amendment Act, No. 29 of 1994

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Island Life/XVII

CHAPTER XVII

BORNEO AND JAVA

 * Position and Physical Features of Borneo—Zoological Features of Borneo: Mammalia—Birds—The Affinities of the Bornean Fauna—Java, its Position and Physical Features—General Character of the Fauna of Java—Differences Between the Fauna of Java and that of the other Malay Islands—Special Relations of the Javan Fauna to that of the Asiatic Continent—Past Geographical Changes of Java and Borneo—The Philippine Islands—Concluding Remarks on the Malay Islands.

As a representative of recent continental islands situated in the tropics, we will take Borneo, since, although perhaps not much more ancient than Great Britain, it presents a considerable amount of speciality; and, in its relations to the surrounding islands and the Asiatic continent, offers us some problems of great interest and considerable difficulty.

The accompanying map shows that Borneo is situated on the eastern side of a submarine bank of enormous extent, being about 1,200 miles from north to south, and 1,500 from east to west, and embracing Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula. This vast area is all included within the 100 fathom line, but by far the larger part of it—from the Gulf of Siam to the Java Sea—is under fifty fathoms, or about the same depth as the sea that separates our own island from the continent. The distance from Borneo to the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula is about 350 miles, and it is nearly as far from Sumatra and Java, while it is more than 600 miles from the Siamese Peninsula, opposite to which its long northern coast extends. There is, I believe, nowhere else upon the globe, an island so far from a continent, yet separated from it by so shallow a sea. Recent changes of sea and land must have occurred here on a grand scale, and this adds to the interest attaching to the study of this large island.

The internal geography of Borneo is somewhat peculiar. A large portion of its surface is lowland, consisting of great alluvial valleys which penetrate far into the interior; while the mountains except in the north, are of no great elevation, and there are no extensive plateaux. A subsidence of 500 feet would allow the sea to fill the great valleys of the Pontianak, Banjarmassing, and Coti rivers, almost to the centre of the island, greatly reducing its extent, and causing it to resemble in form the island of Celebes to the east of it.

In geological structure Borneo is thoroughly continental, possessing formations of all ages, with basalt and crystalline rocks, but no recent volcanoes. It possesses vast beds of coal of Tertiary age; and these, no less than the great extent of alluvial deposits in its valleys, indicate great changes of level in recent geological times.

Having thus briefly indicated those physical features of Borneo which are necessary for our inquiry, let us turn to the organic world.

Neither as regards this great island nor those which surround it, have we the amount of detailed information in a convenient form that is required for a full elucidation of its past history. We have, however, a tolerable acquaintance with the two higher groups—mammalia and birds, both of Borneo and of all the surrounding countries, and to these alone will it be necessary to refer in any detail. The most convenient course, and that which will make the subject easiest for the reader, will be to give, first, a connected sketch of what is known of the zoology of Borneo itself, with the main conclusions to which they point; and then to discuss the mutual relations of some of the adjacent islands, and the series of geographical changes that seem required to explain them.

Mammalia.—Nearly a hundred and forty species of mammalia have been discovered in Borneo, and of these more than three-fourths are identical with those of the surrounding countries, and more than one half with those of the continent. Among these are two lemurs, nine civets, five cats, five deer, the tapir, the elephant, the rhinoceros, and many squirrels, an assemblage which could certainly only have reached the country by land. The following species of mammalia are supposed to be peculiar to Borneo:—

Of the twenty-nine peculiar species here enumerated it is possible that a few may be found to be identical with those of Malacca or Sumatra; but there are also four peculiar genera which are less likely to be discovered elsewhere. These are Nasalis, the remarkable long-nosed monkey; Rheithrosciurus, a peculiar form of squirrel; and Trichys, a tailless porcupine. These peculiar forms do not, however, imply that the separation of the island from the continent is of very ancient date, for the country is so vast and so much of the once connecting land is covered with water, that the amount of speciality is hardly, if at all, greater than occurs in many continental areas of equal extent and remoteness. This will be more evident if we consider that Borneo is as large as the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, or as the Indian Peninsula south of Bombay, and if either of these countries were separated from the continent by the submergence of the whole area north of them as far as the Himalayas, they would be found to contain quite as many peculiar genera and species as Borneo actually does now. A more decisive test of the lapse of time since the separation took place is to be found in the presence of a number of representative species closely allied to those of the surrounding countries, such as the tailed monkeys and the numerous squirrels. These relationships, however, are best seen among the birds, which have been more thoroughly collected and more carefully studied than the mammalia.

Birds.—About 580 species of birds are now known to inhabit Borneo, of which 420 species are land-birds. One hundred and eight species are supposed to be peculiar to the island, and of these one half have been noted, either by Count Salvadori or Mr. Everett, as being either representative species of, or closely allied to birds inhabiting other islands or countries. The majority of these are, as might be expected, allied to species inhabiting the surrounding countries, especially Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, or Java, a smaller number having their representative forms in the Philippine Islands or Celebes. But there is another group of eight species whose nearest allies are found in such remote lands as Ceylon, North India, Burma, or China. These last have been indicated in the following list by a double star (**) while those which are representative of forms found in the immediately surrounding area, and are in many cases very slightly differentiated from their allies, are indicated by a single star (*).

Representative forms of the same character as those noted above are found in all extensive continental areas, but they are rarely so numerous. Thus, in Mr. Elwes' paper on the "Distribution of Asiatic Birds," he states that 12·5 per cent. of the land birds of Burmah and Tenasserim are peculiar species, whereas we find that in Borneo they are about 25 per cent., and the difference may fairly be imputed to the greater proportion of slightly modified representative species due to a period of complete isolation. Of peculiar genera, the Indo-Chinese Peninsula has one—Ampeliceps, a remarkable yellow-crowned starling, with bare pink-coloured orbits; while two others, Temnurus and Crypsirhina—singular birds allied to the jays—are found in no other part of the Asiatic continent though they occur in some of the Malay Islands. Borneo has seven peculiar genera of passeres, as well as Hæmatortyx, a crested partridge; and Lobiophasis, a pheasant hardly distinct from Euplocamus; while two others, Pityriasis, an extraordinary bare-headed bird between a jay and a shrike, and Carpococcyx, a pheasant-like ground cuckoo formerly thought to be peculiar, are said to have been discovered also in Sumatra.

The insects and land-shells of Borneo and of the surrounding countries are too imperfectly known to enable us to arrive at any accurate results with regard to their distribution. They agree, however, with the birds and mammals in their general approximation to Malayan forms, but the number of peculiar species is perhaps larger.

The proportion here shown of less than one-fourth peculiar species of mammalia and fully one-fourth peculiar species of land-birds, teaches us that the possession of the power of flight affects but little the distribution of land-animals, and gives us confidence in the results we may arrive at in those cases where we have, from whatever cause, to depend on a knowledge of the birds alone. And if we consider the wide range of certain groups of powerful flight—as the birds of prey, the swallows and swifts, the king-crows, and some others, we shall be forced to conclude that the majority of forest-birds are restricted by even narrow watery barriers, to an even greater extent than mammalia.

The Affinities of the Bornean Fauna.—The animals of Borneo exhibit an almost perfect identity in general character, and a close similarity in species, with those of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. So great is this resemblance that it is a question whether it might not be quite as great were the whole united; for the extreme points of Borneo and Sumatra are 1,500 miles apart—as far as from Madrid to Constantinople, or from the Missouri valley to California. In such an extent of country we always meet with some local species, and representative forms, so that we hardly require any great lapse of time as an element in the production of the peculiarities we actually find. So far as the forms of life are concerned, Borneo, as an island, may be no older than Great Britain; for the time that has elapsed since the glacial epoch would be amply sufficient to produce such a redistribution of the species, consequent on their mutual relations being disturbed, as would bring the islands into their present zoological condition. There are, however, other facts to be considered, which seem to imply much greater and more complex revolutions than the recent separation of Borneo from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and that these changes must have been spread over a considerable lapse of time. In order to understand what these changes probably were, we must give a brief sketch of the fauna of Java, the peculiarities of which introduce a new element into the question we have to discuss.

The rich and beautiful island of Java, interesting alike to the politician, the geographer, and the naturalist, is more especially attractive to the student of geographical distribution, because it furnishes him with some of the most curious anomalies and difficult problems in a place where such would be least expected. As Java forms with Sumatra one almost unbroken line of volcanoes and volcanic mountains, interrupted only by the narrow Straits of Sunda, we should naturally expect a close resemblance between the productions of the two islands. But in point of fact there is a much greater difference between them than between Sumatra and Borneo, so much further apart, and so very unlike in physical features. Java differs from the three great land masses—Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, far more than either of these do from each other; and this is the first anomaly we encounter. But a more serious difficulty than this remains to be stated. Java has certain close resemblances to the Siamese Peninsula, and also to the Himalayas, which Borneo and Sumatra do not exhibit to so great a proportionate extent; and looking at the relative position of these lands respectively, this seems most incomprehensible. In order fully to appreciate the singularity and difficulty of the problem, it will be necessary to point out the exact nature and amount of these peculiarities in the fauna of Java.

General Character of the Fauna of Java.—If we were only to take account of the number of peculiar species in Java, and the relations of its fauna generally to that of the surrounding lands, we might pass it over as a less interesting island than Borneo or Sumatra. Its mammalia (ninety species) are nearly as numerous as those of Borneo, but are apparently less peculiar, none of the genera and only five or six of the species being confined to the island. In land-birds it is decidedly less rich, having only 300 species, of which about forty-five are peculiar, and only one or two belong to peculiar genera; so that here again the amount of speciality is considerably less than in Borneo. It is only when we proceed to analyse the species of the Javan fauna, and trace their distribution and affinities, that we discover its interesting nature.

Difference Between the Fauna of Java and that of the other great Malay Islands.—Comparing the fauna of Java with that which may be called the typical Malayan fauna as exhibited in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, we find the following differences. No less than thirteen genera of mammalia, each of which is known to inhabit at least two, and generally all three, of the above-named Malayan countries, are totally absent from Java; and they include such important forms as the elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear. It cannot be said that this difference depends on imperfect knowledge, for Java is one of the oldest European settlements in the East, and has been explored by a long succession of Dutch and English naturalists. Every part of it is thoroughly well known, and it would be almost as difficult to find a new mammal of any size in Europe as in Java. Of birds there are twenty-five genera, all typically Malayan and occurring at least in two, and for the most part in all three of the Malay countries, which are yet absent from Java. Most of these are large and conspicuous forms, such as jays, gapers, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, hornbills, cuckoos, parrots, pheasants, and partridges, as impossible to have remained undiscovered in Java as the large mammalia above referred to.

Besides these absent genera there are some curious illustrations of Javan isolation in the species; there being several cases in which the same species occurs in all three of the typical Malay countries, while in Java it is represented by an allied species. These occur chiefly among birds, there being no less than seven species which are common to the three great Malay countries but are represented in Java by distinct though closely allied species.

From these facts it is impossible to doubt that Java has had a history of its own, quite distinct from that of the other portions of the Malayan area.

Special Relations of the Javan Fauna to that of the Asiatic Continent.—These relations are indicated by comparatively few examples, but they are very clear and of great importance. Among mammalia, the genus Helictis is found in Java but in no other Malay country, though it inhabits also North India; while two species, Rhinoceros javanicus and Lepus kurgosa, are natives of Indo-Chinese countries and Java, but not of typical Malaya. In birds there are five genera or sub-genera—Zoothera, Notodela, Crypsirhina, Allotrius, and Cochoa, which inhabit Java, the Himalayas, and Indo-China, all but the last extending south to Tenasserim, but none of them occurring in Malacca, Sumatra, or Borneo. There are also two species of birds—a trogon (Harpactes oreskios), and the Javanese peacock (Pavo muticus), which inhabit only Java and the Indo-Chinese countries, the former reaching Tenasserim and the latter Perak in the Malay Peninsula.

Here, then, we find a series of remarkable similarities between Java and the Asiatic continent, quite independent of the typical Malay countries—Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, which latter have evidently formed one connected land, and thus appear to preclude any independent union of Java and Siam.

The great difficulty in explaining these facts is, that all the required changes of sea and land must have occurred within the period of existing species of mammalia. Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca have, as we have seen, a great similarity as regards their species of mammals and birds, while Java, though it differs from them in so curious a manner, has no greater degree of speciality, since its species, when not Malayan, are almost all North Indian or Siamese.

There is, however, one consideration which may help us over this difficulty. It seems highly probable that in the equatorial regions species have changed less rapidly than in the north temperate zone, on account of the equality and stability of the equatorial climate. We have seen, in Chapter X., how important an agent in producing extinction and modification of species must have been the repeated changes from cold to warm, and from warm to cold conditions, with the migrations and crowding together that must have been their necessary consequence. But in the lowlands, near the equator, these changes would be very little if at all felt, and thus one great cause of specific modification would be wanting. Let us now see whether we can sketch out a series of not improbable changes which may have brought about the existing relations of Java and Borneo to the continent.

Past Geographical Changes of Java and Borneo.—Although Java and Sumatra are mainly volcanic, they are by no means wholly so. Sumatra possesses in its great mountain masses ancient crystalline rocks with much granite, while there are extensive Tertiary deposits of Eocene age, overlying which are numerous beds of coal now raised up many thousand feet above the sea. The volcanoes appear to have burst through these older mountains, and to have partly covered them as well as great areas of the lowlands with the products of their eruptions. In Java either the fundamental strata were less extensive and less raised above the sea, or the period of volcanic action has been of longer duration; for here no crystalline rocks have been found except a few boulders of granite in the western part of the island, perhaps the relics of a formation destroyed by denudation or covered up by volcanic deposits. In the southern part of Java, however, there is an extensive range of low mountains, about 3,000 feet high, consisting of basalt with limestone, apparently of Miocene age.

During this last named period, then, Java would have been at least 3,000 feet lower than it is now, and such a depression would probably extend to considerable parts of Sumatra and Borneo, so as to reduce them all to a few small islands. At some later period a gradual elevation occurred, which ultimately united the whole of the islands with the continent. This may have continued till the glacial period of the northern hemisphere, during the severest part of which a few Himalayan species of birds and mammals may have been driven southward, and have ranged over suitable portions of the whole area. Java then became separated by subsidence, and these species were imprisoned in the island; while those in the remaining part of the Malayan area again migrated northward when the cold had passed away from their former home, the equatorial forests of Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula being more especially adapted to the typical Malayan fauna which is there developed in rich profusion. A little later the subsidence may have extended farther north, isolating Borneo and Sumatra, in which a few other Indian or Indo-Chinese forms have been retained, but probably leaving the Malay Peninsula as a ridge between them as far as the islands of Banca and Biliton. Other slight changes of climate followed, when a further subsidence separated these last-named islands from the Malay Peninsula, and left them with two or three species which have since become slightly modified. We may thus explain how it is that a species is sometimes common to Sumatra and Borneo, while the intervening island (Banca) possesses a distinct form.

In my Geographical Distribution of Animals, Vol. I., p. 357, I have given a somewhat different hypothetical explanation of the relations of Java and Borneo to the continent, in which I took account of changes of land and sea only; but a fuller consideration of the influence of changes of climate on the migration of animals, has led me to the much simpler, and, I think, more probable, explanation above given. The amount of the relationship between Java and Siam, as well as of that between Java and the Himalayas, is too small to be well accounted for by an independent geographical connection in which Borneo and Sumatra did not take part. It is, at the same time, too distinct and indisputable to be ignored; and a change of climate which should drive a portion of the Himalayan fauna southward, leaving a few species in Java and Borneo from which they could not return owing to the subsequent isolation of those islands by subsidence, seems to be a cause exactly adapted to produce the kind and amount of affinity between these distant countries that actually exists.

A general account of the fauna of these islands, and of their biological relations to the countries which form the subject of this chapter, has been given in my Geographical Distribution of Animals, Vol. I. pp. 345-349; but since the publication of that work considerable additions have been made to their fauna, having the effect of somewhat diminishing their isolation from the other islands. Four genera have been added to the terrestrial mammalia—Crocidura, Felis, Pteromys, and Mus, as well as two additional squirrels; while the black ape (Cynopithecus niger) has been struck out as not inhabiting the Philippines. This brings the true land mammalia to twenty-one species, of which fourteen are peculiar to the islands; but to these we must add no less than thirty-three species of bats of which only ten are peculiar. In these estimates the Palawan group has been omitted as these islands contain so many Bornean species that if included they obscure the special features of the fauna.

Birds.—The late Marquis of Tweeddale made a special study of Philippine birds, and in 1873 published a catalogue in the Transactions of the Zoological Society (Vol. IX. Pt. 2, pp. 125-247). But since that date large collections have been made by Everett, Steere, and other travellers, the result of which has been to more than double the known species, and to render the ornithological fauna an exceedingly rich one. Many of the Malayan genera which were thought to be absent when the first edition of this work was published have since been discovered, among which are Phyllornis, Criniger, Diceum, Prionochilus, and Batrachostomus. But there still remain a large number of highly characteristic Malayan genera whose absence gives a distinctive feature to the Philippine bird fauna. Among these are Tiga and Meiglyptes, genera of woodpeckers; Phænicophaes and Centropus, remarkable cuckoos; the long-tailed paroquets, Palæornis; all the genera of Barbets except Xantholæma; the small but beautiful family Eurylæmidæ; many genera allied to Timalia and Ixos; the mynahs, Gracula; the long-tailed flycatchers, Tchitrea; the fire-backed pheasants, Euplocamus; the argus pheasants, the jungle-fowl, and many others.

The following tabular statement will illustrate the rapid growth of our knowledge of the birds of the Philippines:—

The number of peculiar species is very large, there being about 300 land and forty-two water birds, which are not known to occur beyond the group. We have here, still more pronounced than in the case of Borneo, the remarkable fact of the true land birds presenting a larger amount of speciality than the land mammals; for while more than four-fifths of the birds are peculiar, only a little more than half the mammals are so, and if we exclude the bats only two-thirds.

The general character of the fauna of this group of islands is evidently the result of their physical conditions and geological history. The Philippines are almost surrounded by deep sea, but are connected with Borneo by means of two narrow submarine banks, on the northern of which is situated Palawan, and on the southern the Sulu Islands. Two small groups of islands, the Bashees and Babuyanes, have also afforded a partial connection with the continent by way of Formosa. It is evident that the Philippines once formed part of the great Malayan extension of Asia, but that they were separated considerably earlier than Java; and having been since greatly isolated and much broken up by volcanic disturbances, their species have for the most part become modified into distinct local forms, representative species often occurring in the different islands of the group. They have also received a few Chinese types by the route already indicated, and a few Australian forms owing to their proximity to the Moluccas. Their comparative poverty in genera and species of the mammalia is perhaps due to the fact that they have been subjected to a great amount of submersion in recent times, greatly reducing their area and causing the extinction of a considerable portion of their fauna. This is not a mere hypothesis, but is supported by direct evidence; for I am informed by Mr. Everett, who has made extensive explorations in the islands, that almost everywhere are found large tracts of elevated coral-reefs, containing shells similar to those living in the adjacent seas, an indisputable proof of recent elevation.

Concluding Remarks on the Malay Islands.—This completes our sketch of the great Malay islands, the seat of the typical Malayan fauna. It has been shown that the peculiarities presented by the individual islands may be all sufficiently well explained by a very simple and comparatively unimportant series of geographical changes, combined with a limited amount of change of climate towards the northern tropic. Beginning in late Miocene times when the deposits on the south coast of Java were upraised, we suppose a general elevation of the whole of the extremely shallow seas uniting what are now Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the Philippines with the Asiatic continent, and forming that extended equatorial area in which the typical Malayan fauna was developed. After a long period of stability, giving ample time for the specialisation of so many peculiar types, the Philippines were first separated; then at a considerably later period Java; a little later Sumatra and Borneo; and finally the islands south of Singapore to Banca and Biliton. This one simple series of elevations and subsidences, combined with the changes of climate already referred to, and such local elevations and depressions as must undoubtedly have occurred, appears sufficient to have brought about the curious, and at first sight puzzling, relations, of the faunas of Java and the Philippines, as compared with those of the larger islands.

We will now pass on to the consideration of two other groups which offer features of special interest, and which will complete our illustrative survey of recent continental islands.

title: Island Life/XVII


text: Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23/Chapter 1


text: Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23/Chapter 2


text: Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23/Chapter 3


text: Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23/Chapter 4


text: Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23/Chapter 5


text:
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23/Chapter 6

Remuneration and pension of President

79. There shall be paid to the President out of and as a charge on the National Revenue Fund and apart from any privilege which he or she may enjoy, such remuneration and allowances, and upon his or her retirement, or to his or her widow or widower or dependent or nominee (including his or her estate) as he or she may elect, on his or her death, such pension and pension benefits, as may be determined from time to time by resolution of Parliament.

Acting President

86. (1) The President shall appoint one of the Executive Deputy Presidents, or if no Executive Deputy President is available, a Minister, to act as President during his or her absence or temporary incapacity.

(2) In designating an Acting President under subsection (1), the President shall take into consideration the exigencies of government and the spirit underlying the concept of a government of national unity.

(3) Should it be necessary that an Acting President be appointed and the President is absent or unable to make such an appointment, or if the office of President is vacant, the other members of the Cabinet shall make such appointment, taking into consideration the exigencies of government and the spirit underlying the concept of a government of national unity.

(3A) (a) The person appointed as Acting President shall, subject to paragraph (b), before formally assuming office make and subscribe an oath or solemn affirmation in the terms set out in Schedule 3 before the Chief Justice or a judge of the Supreme Court designated by the Chief Justice for this purpose.

(b) An oath or solemn affirmation made and subscribed by a person appointed as Acting President shall for purposes of any subsequent appointment of that person as Acting President during the term of office of a particular President, be deemed to be an oath or solemn declaration made and subscribed by that person also in respect of such subsequent appointment.

(4) An Acting President shall while acting as President have all the powers and functions vested in the office of President.


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Island Life/XVIII

CHAPTER XVIII

JAPAN AND FORMOSA

 * Japan, its Position and Physical Features—Zoological Features of Japan—Mammalia—Birds—Birds Common to Great Britain and Japan—Birds Peculiar to Japan—Japan Birds Recurring in Distant Areas—Formosa—Physical Features of Formosa—Animal Life of Formosa—Mammalia—Land-birds Peculiar to Formosa—Formosan Birds Recurring in India or Malaya—Comparison of Faunas of Hainan, Formosa, and Japan—General Remarks on Recent Continental Islands.

The Japanese Islands occupy a very similar position on the eastern shore of the great Euro-Asiatic continent to that of the British Islands on the western, except that they are about sixteen degrees further south, and having a greater extension in latitude enjoy a more varied as well as a more temperate climate. Their outline is also much more irregular and their mountains loftier, the volcanic peak of Fusiyama being 14,177 feet high; while their geological structure is very complex, their soil extremely fertile, and their vegetation in the highest degree varied and beautiful. Like our own islands, too, they are connected with the continent by a marine bank less than a hundred fathoms below the surface—at all events towards the north and south; but in the intervening space the Sea of Japan opens out to a width of six hundred miles, and in its central portion is very deep, and this may be an indication that the connection between the islands and the continent is of rather ancient date. At the Straits of Corea the distance from the main land is about 120 miles, while at the northern extremity of Yesso it is about 200. The island of Saghalien, however, separated from Yesso by a strait only twenty-five miles wide, forms a connection with Amoorland in about 52° N. Lat. A southern warm current flowing a little to the eastward of the islands, ameliorates their climate much in the same way as the Gulf Stream does ours, and added to their insular position enables them to support a more tropical vegetation and more varied forms of life than are found at corresponding latitudes in China.

[[Image:Wallace_Island_Life_p392.png|center|375px|thumb| MAP OF JAPAN AND FORMOSA (with depths in fathoms).

Light tint, sea under 100 fathoms. Medium tint, under 1,000 fathoms. Dark tint, over 1,000 fathoms. The figures show the depth in fathoms.]]

Zoological Features of Japan.—As we might expect from the conditions here sketched out, Japan exhibits in all its forms of animal life a close general resemblance to the adjacent continent, but with a considerable element of specific individuality; while it also possesses some remarkable isolated groups. Its fauna presents indications of there having been two or more lines of migration at different epochs. The majority of its animals are related to those of the temperate or cold regions of the continent, either as identical or allied species; but a smaller number have a tropical character, and these have in several instances no allies in China but occur again only in Northern India or the Malay Archipelago. There is also a slight American element in the fauna of Japan, a relic probably of the period when a land communication existed between the two continents over what are now the shallow seas of Japan, Ochotsk, and Kamschatka. We will now proceed to examine the peculiarities and relations of the fauna.

Mammalia.—The mammalia of Japan at present known are forty in number; not very many when compared with the rich fauna of China and Manchuria, but containing monkeys, bears, deer, wild goats and wild boars, as well as foxes, badgers, moles, squirrels, and hares, so that there can be no doubt whatever that they imply a land connection with the continent. No complete account of Japan mammals has been given by any competent zoologist since the publication of Von Siebold's Fauna Japonica in 1844, but by collecting together most of the scattered observations since that period the following list has been drawn up, and will, it is hoped, be of use to naturalists. The species believed to be peculiar to Japan are printed in italics. These are very numerous, but it must be remembered that Corea and Manchuria (the portions of the continent opposite Japan) are comparatively little known, while in very few cases have the species of Japan and of the continent been critically compared. Where this has been done, however, the peculiar species established by the older naturalists have been in many cases found to be correct.

 * 1. Macacus speciosus. A monkey with rudimentary tail and red face, allied to the Barbary ape. It inhabits the island of Niphon up to 41° N. Lat., and has thus the most northern range of any living monkey.

 * 2. Pteropus dasymallus. A peculiar fruit-bat, found in Kiusiu Island only (Lat. 33° N.), and thus ranging further north of the equator than any other species of the genus.

 * 3. Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum. The great horse-shoe bat, ranges from Britain across Europe and temperate Asia to Japan. It is the R. nippon of the Fauna Japonica according to Mr. Dobson's Monograph of Asiatic Bats.

 * 4. R. minor. Found also in Burma, Yunan, Java, Borneo, &c.

 * 5. Vesperugo pipistrellus. From Britain across Europe and Asia.

 * 6. V. abramus. Also in India and China.

 * 7. V. noctula. From Britain across Europe and Asia.

 * 8. V. molossus. Also in China.

 * 9. Vespertilio capaccinii. Philippine Islands, and Italy! This is V. macrodactylus of the Fauna Japonica according to Mr. Dobson.

 * 10. Miniopterus schreibersii. Philippines, Burma, Malay Islands. This is Vespertilio blepotis of the Fauna Japonica.

 * 11. Talpa wogura. Closely resembles the common mole of Europe, but has six incisors instead of eight in the lower jaw.

 * 12. Talpa mizura. Günth. Allied to T. wogura.

 * 13. Urotrichus talpoides. A peculiar genus of moles confined to Japan. An American species has been named Urotrichus gibsii, and Mr. Lord after comparing the two says that he "can find no difference whatever, either generic or specific. In shape, size, and colour, they are exactly alike." But Dr. Günther (P. Z. S. 1880, p. 441) states that U. gibsii differs so much in dentition from the Japanese species that it should be placed in a distinct genus, which he calls Neurotrichus.

 * 14. Sorex myosurus. A shrew, found also in India and Malaya.

 * 15. Sorex dzi-nezumi.

 * 16. S. umbrinus.

 * 17. S. platycephalus.

 * 18. Ursus arctos. var. A peculiar variety of the European brown bear which inhabits also Amoorland and Kamschatka. It is the Ursus ferox of the Fauna Japonica.

 * 19. Ursus japonicus. A peculiar species allied to the Himalayan and Formosan species. Named U. tibetanus in the Fauna Japonica.

 * 20. Meles anakuma. Differs from the European and Siberian badgers in the form of the skull.

 * 21. Mustela brachyura. A peculiar martin found also in the Kurile Islands.

 * 22. Mustela melanopus. The Japanese sable.

 * 23. M. Japonica. A peculiar martin (See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 104).

 * 24. M. Sibericus. Also Siberia and China. This is the M. italsi of the Fauna Japonica according to Dr. Gray.

 * 25. Lutronectes whiteleyi. A new genus and species of otter (P. Z. S. 1867, p. 180). In the Fauna Japonica named Lutra vulgaris.

 * 26. Enhydris marina. The sea-otter of California and Kamschatka.

 * 27. Canis hodophylax. According to Dr. Gray allied to Cuon sumatranus of the Malay Islands, and C. alpinus of Siberia, if not identical with one of them (P. Z. S. 1868, p. 500).

 * 28. Vulpes japonica. A peculiar fox. Canis vulpes of Fauna Japonica.

 * 29. Nyctereutes procyonoides. The racoon-dog of N. China and Amoorland.

 * 30. Lepus brachyurus. A peculiar hare.

 * 31. Sciurus lis. A peculiar squirrel.

 * 32. Pteromys leucogenys. The white-cheeked flying squirrel.

 * 33. P. momoga. Perhaps identical with a Cambojan species (P. Z. S. 1861, p. 137).

 * 34. Myoxus japonicus. A peculiar dormouse. M. elegans of the Fauna Japonica; M. javanicus, Schinz (Synopsis Mammalium, ii. p. 530).

 * 35. Mus argenteus. China.

 * 36. Mus molossinus.

 * 37. M. nezumi.

 * 38. M. speciosus.

 * 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. sumatranus of Sumatra, and N. Swinhoei of Formosa.

 * 41. Sus leucomystax. A wild boar allied to S. taeranus of Formosa.

We thus find that no less than twenty-six out of the forty-one Japanese mammals are peculiar, and if we omit the aërial 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 dentition 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 be best understood when we have examined the corresponding affinities of the birds of Japan.

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 Japan proper; while seventeen more are peculiar to the various outlying small islands constituting the Bonin and Loo Choo groups. Even of these, six or seven are classed 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 Japan 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 circumference of the globe:—

(Either Identical Species or Representative sub-species.)

But even these fifty-three species by no means fairly represent the amount of resemblance between Britain and Japan 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 Japan 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:—

 * 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 japonica. Allied to two Chinese species.

 * 3. Lusciniola pryeri.

 * 4. Garrulus japonicus. 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 woodpecker.

 * 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. Phasianus versicolor. A distinct species.

 * 16.       ,,       sœmmeringi. 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 Japanese ornithology. The comparative remoteness of 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.

Japan Birds Recurring in Distant Areas.—The most interesting feature in the ornithology of Japan 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 class are,—the fruit-pigeon of the genus Treron, entirely unknown in China, but reappearing in Formosa and Japan; the Hypsipetes, whose nearest ally is in South China at a distance of nearly 500 miles; and the jay (Garrulus japonicus), 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 Japan, but unknown in Southern or Eastern China; Ceryle guttata, a spotted kingfisher, almost confined to the Himalayas and Japan, though occurring rarely in Central China; and Halcyon coromanda, a brilliant red kingfisher inhabiting Northern India, the Malay Islands to Celebes, Formosa, and Japan. We have here an excellent illustration 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 Japan, 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.

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 passage from the northern extremity of Japan 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 Japan 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.

Among recent continental islands there is probably none that surpasses 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 that country. We possess, too, the further advantage of having the whole of the available materials in these two classes 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.

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 altitude 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 circumstances 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 Japan 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 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 classed 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 analogous 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.

(The peculiar species are printed in italics.)

2. Pteropus formosus. A fruit-bat closely allied to the Japanese 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. 7. Sorex murinus. Musk Rat. China. 8. Sorex sp. A shrew, undescribed. 9. Erinaceus sp. A Hedgehog, undescribed. 10. Ursus tibetanus. 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. 15. Felis chinensis. The Chinese Tiger Cat. China. 16. Viverricula malaccensis. Spotted Civet. China, India. 17. Paguma larvata. Gem-faced Civet. China. 18. Sus taivanus. Allied to the wild Pig of Japan. 19. Cervulus reevesii. Reeve's Muntjac. China. 20. Cervus pseudaxis. Formosan Spotted Deer. Allied to C. sika of Japan. 21. Cervus swinhoii. Swinhoe's Rusa Deer. Allied to Indian and Malayan species. 22. Nemorhedus swinhoii. Swinhoe's Goat-antelope. Allied to the species of Sumatra and Japan. 23. Bos chinensis. South China wild Cow. 24. Mus bandicota. The Bandicoot Rat. Perhaps introduced from India. 25. Mus indicus. Indian Rat. 26. Mus coxinga. Spinous Country-rat. 27. Mus canna. Silken Country-rat. 28. Mus losca. Brown Country-rat. 29. Sciurus castaneoventris. Chestnut-bellied Squirrel. China and Hainan. 30. Sciurus m'clellandi. M‘Clelland's Squirrel. Himalayas, China. 31. Sciuropterus kaleensis. Small Formosan Flying Squirrel. Allied to S. alboniger of Nepal. 32. Pteromys grandis. Large Red Flying Squirrel. Allied to Himalayan and Bornean species. From North Formosa. 33. Pteromys pectoralis. White-breasted Flying Squirrel. From South Formosa. 34. Lepus sinensis. Chinese Hare. Inhabits South China. 35. Manis dalmanni. Scaly Ant-eater. China and the
 * 1. Macacus cyclopis. A rock-monkey more allied to M. rhesus of India   than to M. sancti-johannis of South China.
 * Himalayas.

The most interesting and suggestive feature connected with these Formosan mammals is the identity or affinity of several of them, with Indian or Malayan rather than with Chinese species. We have the rock-monkey of Formosa allied to the rhesus monkeys of India and Burma, not to those of South China and Hainan. The tree civet (Helictis subaurantiaca), and the small flying squirrel (Sciuropterus kaleensis), are both allied to Himalayan species. Swinhoe's deer and goat-antelope are nearest to Malayan species, as are the red and white-breasted flying squirrels; while the fruit-bat, the wild pig, and the spotted deer are all allied to peculiar Japanese species. The clouded tiger is a Malay species unknown in China, while the Asiatic wild cat is a native of the Himalayas and Malacca. It is clear, therefore, that before Formosa was separated from the mainland the above named animals or their ancestral types must have ranged over the intervening country as far as the Himalayas on the west, Japan on the north, and Borneo or the Philippines on the south; and that after that event occurred, the conditions were so materially changed as to lead to the extinction of these species in what are now the coast provinces of China, while they or their modified descendants continued to exist in the dense forests of the Himalayas and the Malay Islands, and in such detached islands as Formosa and Japan. We will now see what additional light is thrown upon this subject by an examination of the birds.

(Thrushes).

 * 1. Turdus albiceps. Allied to Chinese species.

(Warblers).

3. Herbivox cantans. Sub-species of H. cantillaus of N. China and Japan. 4. Notodela montium. Allied to N. leucura of the Himalayas; no ally in
 * 2. Cisticola volitans. Allied to C. schœnicola of India and China.
 * China.

(Babblers).

6. P. erythroenemis.             Do. do. 7. Garrulax ruficeps. Allied to G. albogularis of N. India and East Thibet, not to the species of S. China (G. sannio). 8. Janthocincla pœcilorhyncha. Allied to J. cœrulata of the Himalayas. None of the genus in China. 9. Trochalopteron taivanus. Allied to a Chinese species. 10. Alcippe morrisoniana. Near the Himalayan A. nipalensis. None of the genus in China. 11. A. brunnea.                                       Do. do. 12. Sibia auricularis. Allied to the Himalayan S. capistrata. The genus not known in
 * 5. Pomatorhinus musicus. Allies in S. China and the Himalayas.
 * China.

(Bearded Tits, &c.).

 * 13. Suthora bulomachus. Allied to the Chinese S. suffusa.

(Dippers and Whistling Thrushes).

 * 14. Myiophoneus insularis. Allied to M. horsfieldi of South India.

(Tits).

16. P. castaneiventris. Allied to P. varius of
 * 15. Parus insperatus. Sub-species of P. monticola of the Himalayas and East Thibet.
 * Japan.

(Hill Tits).

 * 17. Liocichla steerii. A peculiar genus of a specially Himalayan family, quite unknown in China.

(Bulbuls).

19. Hypsipetes nigerrimus. Allied to H. concolor of Assam, not to H. macclellandi of
 * 18. Pycnonotus (Spizixos) cinereicapillus. Very near P. semitorques of China.
 * China.

(Orioles).

 * 20. Analcipus ardens. Allied to A. traillii of the Himalayas and Tenasserim.

(Caterpillar Shrikes).

 * 21. Graucalus rex-pineti. Closely allied to the Indian G. macei. No ally in China.

(King Crows).

 * 22. Chaptia brauniana. Closely allied to C. ænea of Assam. No ally in China.

(Flycatchers).

 * 23. Cyornis vivida. Allied to C. rubeculoides of India.

(Jays and Crows).

25. Urocissa cœrulea. A very distinct species from its Indian and Chinese allies. 26. Dendrocitta formosæ. A sub-species of the Chinese D. sinensis.
 * 24. Garrulus taivanus. Allied to G. sinensis of S. China.

(Weaver Finches).

 * 27. Munia formosana. Allied to M. rubronigra of India and Burmah.

(Larks).

29. A. wattersi.
 * 28. Alauda sala. Allies in South China.
 * Do.

(Pittas).

 * 30. Pitta oreas. Allied to P. cyanoptera of Malaya and S. China.

(Woodpeckers).

 * 31. Picus insularis. Allied to P. leuconotus of Japan and Siberia.

 * 32. Megalæma nuchalis. Allied to M. oortii of Sumatra and M. faber of Hainan. No allies in China.

(Goatsuckers).

 * 33. Caprimulgus stictomus. A sub-species of C. monticolus of India and China.

(Pigeons).

35. Sphenocercus sororius. Allied to Malay species and to S. sieboldi of Japan. No allies of these two birds inhabit China. 36. Chalcophaps formosana. Allied to the Indian species which extends to Tenasserim and
 * 34. Treron formosæ. Allied to Malayan species.
 * Hainan.

(Grouse and Partridges).

38. Bambusicola sonorivox. Allied to the Chinese B. thoracica. 39. Arcoturnix rostrata. Allied to the Chinese A. blakistonii.
 * 37. Orcoperdix crudigularis. A peculiar genus of partridges.

(Pheasants).

41. Euplocamus swinhoii. A very peculiar and beautiful species allied to the tropical fire-backed pheasants, and to the silver pheasant of North
 * 40. Phasianus formosanus. Allied to P. torquatus of China.
 * China.

(Owls).

43. Lempigius hambroekii. Allied to a Chinese
 * 42. Athene pardalota. Closely allied to a Chinese species.
 * species.

This list exhibits to us the marvellous fact that more than half the peculiar species of Formosan birds have their nearest allies in such remote regions as the Himalayas, South India, the Malay Islands, or Japan, rather than in the adjacent parts of the Asiatic continent. Fourteen species have Himalayan allies, and six of these belong to genera which are unknown in China. One has its nearest ally in the Nilgherries, and five in the Malay Islands; and of these six, four belong to genera which are not Chinese. Two have their only near allies in Japan. Perhaps more curious still are those cases in which, though the genus is Chinese, the nearest allied species is to be sought for in some remote region. Thus we have the Formosan babbler (Garrulax ruficeps) not allied to the species found in South China, but to one inhabiting North India and East Thibet; while the black bulbul (Hypsipetes nigerrimus), is not allied to the Chinese species but to an Assamese form.

In the same category as the above we must place eight species not peculiar to Formosa, but which are Indian or Malayan rather than Chinese, so that they offer examples of discontinuous distribution somewhat analogous to what we found to occur in Japan. These are enumerated in the following list.

1. Siphia superciliaris. The Rufous-breasted Flycatcher of the S. E. Himalayas.

2. Halcyon coromanda. The Great Red Kingfisher of India, Malaya, and Japan.

3. Palumbus pulchricollis. The Darjeeling Wood-pigeon of the S. E. Himalayas.

4. Turnix dussumieri. The larger Button-quail of India.

5. Spizaetus nipalensis. The Spotted Hawk-eagle of Nepal and Assam.

6. Lophospiza trivirgata. The Crested Gos-hawk of the Malay Islands.

7. Bulaca newarensis. The Brown Wood-owl of the Himalayas.

8. Strix candida. The Grass-owl of India and Malaya.

The most interesting of the above are the pigeon and the flycatcher, both of which are, so far as yet known, strictly confined to the Himalayan mountains and Formosa. They thus afford examples of discontinuous specific distribution exactly parallel to that of the great spotted kingfisher, already referred to as found only in the Himalayas and Japan.

Comparison of the Faunas of Hainan, Formosa, and Japan.—The island of Hainan on the extreme south of China, and only separated from the mainland by a strait fifteen miles wide, appears to have considerable similarity to Formosa, inasmuch as it possesses seventeen peculiar land-birds (out of 130 obtained by Mr. Swinhoe), two of which are close allies of Formosan species, while two others are identical. We also find four species whose nearest allies are in the Himalayas. Our knowledge of this island and of the adjacent coast of China is not yet sufficient to enable us to form an accurate judgment of its relations, but it seems probable that it was separated from the continent at, approximately, the same epoch as Formosa and Japan, and that the special features of each of these islands are mainly due to their geographical position. Formosa, being more completely isolated than either of the others, possesses a larger proportion of peculiar species of birds, while its tropical situation and lofty mountain ranges have enabled it to preserve an unusual number of Himalayan and Malayan forms. Japan, almost equally isolated towards the south, and having a much greater variety of climate as well as a much larger area, possesses about an equal number of mammalia with Formosa, and an even larger proportion of peculiar species. Its birds, however, though more numerous are less peculiar; and this is probably due to the large number of species which migrate northwards in summer, and find it easy to enter Japan through the Kurile Isles or Saghalien. Japan too, is largely peopled by those northern types which have an unusually wide range, and which, being almost all migratory, are accustomed to cross over seas of moderate extent. The regular or occasional influx of these species prevents the formation of special insular races, such as are almost always produced when a portion of the population of a species remains for a considerable time completely isolated. We thus have explained the curious fact, that while the mammalia of the two islands are almost equally peculiar, (those of Japan being most so in the present state of our knowledge), the birds of Formosa show a far greater number of peculiar species than those of Japan.

General Remarks on Recent Continental Islands.—We have now briefly sketched the zoological peculiarities of an illustrative series of recent continental islands, commencing with one of the most recent—Great Britain—in which the process of formation of peculiar species has only just commenced, and terminating with Formosa, probably one of the most ancient of the series, and which accordingly presents us with a very large proportion of peculiar species, not only in its mammalia, which have no means of crossing the wide strait which separates it from the mainland, but also in its birds, many of which are quite able to cross over.

Here, too, we obtain a glimpse of the way in which species die out and are replaced by others, which quite agrees with what the theory of evolution assures us must have occurred. On a continent, the process of extinction will generally take effect on the circumference of the area of distribution, because it is there that the species comes into contact with such adverse conditions or competing forms as prevent it from advancing further. A very slight change will evidently turn the scale and cause the species to contract its range, and this usually goes on till it is reduced to a very restricted area, and finally becomes extinct. It may conceivably happen (and almost certainly has sometimes happened) that the process of restriction of range by adverse conditions may act in one direction only, and over a limited district, so as ultimately to divide the specific area into two separated parts, in each of which a portion of the species will continue to maintain itself. We have seen that there is reason to believe that this has occurred in a very few cases both in North America and in Northern Asia. (See pp. 65-68.) But the same thing has certainly occurred in a considerable number of cases, only it has resulted in the divided areas being occupied by representative forms instead of by the very same species. The cause of this is very easy to understand. We have already shown that there is a large amount of local variation in a considerable number of species, and we may be sure that were it not for the constant intermingling and intercrossing of the individuals inhabiting adjacent localities this tendency to local variation in adaptation to slightly different conditions, would soon form distinct races. But as soon as the area is divided into two portions the intercrossing is stopped, and the usual result is that two closely allied races, classed as representative species, become formed. Such pairs of allied species on the two sides of a continent, or in two detached areas, are very numerous; and their existence is only explicable on the supposition that they are descendants of a parent form which once occupied an area comprising that of both of them,—that this area then became discontinuous,—and, lastly, that, as a consequence of the discontinuity, the two sections of the parent species became segregated into distinct races or new species.

Now, when the division of the area leaves one portion of the species in an island, a similar modification of the species, either in the island or in the continent, occurs, resulting in closely-allied but distinct forms; and such forms are, as we have seen, highly characteristic of island-faunas. But islands also favour the occasional preservation of the unchanged species—a phenomenon which very rarely occurs in continents. This is probably due to the absence of competition in islands, so that the parent species there maintains itself unchanged, while the continental portion, by the force of that competition, is driven back to some remote mountain area, where it also obtains a comparative freedom from competition. Thus may be explained the curious fact, that the species common to Formosa and India are generally confined to limited areas in the Himalayas, or in other cases are found only in remote islands, as Japan or Hainan.

The distribution and affinities of the animals of continental islands thus throws much light on that obscure subject—the decay and extinction of species; while the numerous and delicate gradations in the modification of the continental species, from perfect identity, through slight varieties, local forms, and insular races, to well-defined species and even distinct genera, afford an overwhelming mass of evidence in favour of the theory of "descent with modification."

We shall now pass on to another class of islands, which, though originally forming parts of continents, were separated from them at very remote epochs. This antiquity is clearly manifested in their existing faunas, which present many peculiarities, and offer some most curious problems to the student of distribution.

146 Extracted from Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer's Catalogue of Birds of Japan (Ibis, 1878, p. 209), with Mr. Seebohm's additions and corrections in his Birds of the Japanese Empire 1890. Accidental stragglers are not reckoned as British birds.

147 Mr. Swinhoe died in October, 1877, at the early age of forty-two. His writings on natural history are chiefly scattered through the volumes of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society and The Ibis; the whole being summarised in his Catalogue of the Mammals of South China and Formosa (P. Z. S., 1870, p. 615), and his Catalogue of the Birds of China and its Islands (P. Z. S., 1871, p. 337).

148 Captain Blakiston has shown that the northern island—Yezo—is much more temperate and less peculiar in its zoology than the central and southern islands. This is no doubt dependent chiefly on the considerable change of climate that occurs on passing the Tsu-garu strait.

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82 recognized as such by the popular apprehension. From that time, it began to exhibit a tendency to extend its sphere of application at the expense of the more ancient modes of forming the preterit tense—the same tendency which shows itself so noticeably now in every child who learns the English language, inclining him to say I bringed, I goed, I seed, until with much pains he is taught the various "irregular" forms, and is made to employ them as prevailing usage directs. Prevailing usage has in our language already ratified a host of such blunders; a large portion of the ancient Germanic verbs, formerly inflected after the analogy of sing, come, bind, give, and their like, we now conjugate "regularly." One instance we have had occasion to notice above—the verb help, of which the ancient participle holpen, instead of helped, is still to be found in our English Bibles: others are bake, creep, fold, leap, laugh, smoke, starve, wade, wield.

Further examples of the same tendency toward extension of prevailing analogies beyond their historically correct limits are to be seen in the present declension of our nouns. The letter s is, with us, the sign of all possessive cases, not in the singular number alone, but in the plural also of such words as do not form their plural in s; thus, man's, men's; child's, children's. In the Anglo-Saxon, it was the genitive ending of the singular only, and by no means in all nouns: the feminines, without exception, and many masculines and neuters, formed their genitives in other ways. But it was the possessive sign in a majority of substantives, and there was no other distinctive ending which had the same office; and accordingly, it came to be so associated with the relation of possession in the minds of English speakers, that, in the great change and simplification of grammatical apparatus which attended the transition of Anglo-Saxon into English, its use was gradually extended, till at last no exceptions were left. A like treatment has given our plural suffix the range of application which it now exhibits. Less than half the Anglo-Saxon nouns had plurals in s: it was restricted to a single gender, the masculine, nor did it even form all the masculine plurals; while, in our usage, it is almost universal, the only exceptions being the anomalous forms already


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III.] referred to (men, mice, feet, etc.), and the few words, like oxen from ox, in which we have retained relics of another mode of declension, once belonging to a large class of nouns. The prevalence which this suffix has attained in our language has been plausibly conjectured to be in part due to the influence of the French-speaking Normans, in whose own tongue s was the plural-sign in all nouns, having become such by a similar extension of its original Latin use.

This extensibility of application is a part of the essential and indispensable character of a formative element. We have not to go over and over again with the primitive act of composition and the subsequent reduction, in each separate case. It needs only that there be words enough in familiar use in a language, in which a certain added element distinctly impresses a certain modification of meaning upon certain plainly recognizable primitives, and we establish a direct association between that element and the given modification of meaning, and are ready to apply the former wherever we wish to signify the latter. The ending ly, for instance, we use when we want to make an adverb, without any thought of whether the adjective like would or would not be properly combinable with the word to which we add the ending. This alone makes it possible to mobilize, so to speak, our linguistic material, to use our old and new words in all the circumstances among which they are liable to fall. We adopt into our common speech a new term like telegraph; it was manufactured out of the stores of expression of the ancient Greek language, by some man versed in that classic tongue, and is implicitly accepted, under the sanction and recommendation of the learned, by the public at large, who neither know nor care for its etymology, who know only that they want a name for a thing, and that this answers their purpose. It thus becomes to all intents and purposes an English word, a naturalized citizen in our tongue, invested with all the rights and duties of a native—and divested, also, of those which belonged to it by hereditary descent, among its own kith and kin. We proceed, accordingly, to apply to it a whole apparatus of English inflections, long since worked out by the processes of linguistic change, and


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Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993/1994-11-23/Chapter 7

Composition of Constitutional Court and appointment of judges of Constitutional Court

99. (1) Unless the new constitutional text provides otherwise, the judges of the Constitutional Court shall be appointed by the President for a non-renewable period of seven years.

(2) No person shall be qualified to be appointed President or a judge of the Constitutional Court unless he or she—

is a South African citizen; and is a fit and proper person to be a judge of the Constitutional Court; and

is a judge of the Supreme Court or is qualified to be admitted as an advocate or attorney and has, for a cumulative period of at least 10 years after having so qualified, practised as an advocate or an attorney or lectured in law at a university; or is a person who, by reason of his or her training and experience, has expertise in the field of constitutional law relevant to the application of this Constitution and the law of the Republic.

(3) Four judges of the Constitutional Court shall be appointed from among the judges of the Supreme Court by the President in consultation with the Cabinet and with the Chief Justice.

(4) Subject to subsection (5), six judges of the Constitutional Court shall be appointed by the President in consultation with the Cabinet and after consultation with the President of the Constitutional Court: Provided that not more than two persons may be appointed from the category of persons referred to in subsection (2)(c)(ii).

(5) (a) Subject to subsection (6), an appointment or appointments under section 97(2) or subsection (4) or (7) of this section shall only be made from the recommendations of the Judicial Service Commission, and with due regard to its reasons for such recommendations, of not more than three nominees in excess of the number of persons required to be appointed: Provided that in respect of the first appointment after the commencement of this Constitution of the six judges referred to in subsection (4), the Judicial Service Commission shall submit a list of ten nominees.

(b) If the appointing authorities decide not to accept any or some of such recommendations, the Judicial Service Commission shall be informed thereof and be furnished with the reasons therefor.

(c) After having been informed in terms of paragraph (b), the Judicial Service Commission shall, in accordance with paragraph (a), submit further recommendations, whereafter the appointing authorities shall make the appointment or appointments from the recommendations as supplemented in terms of this paragraph.

(d) In submitting its recommendations to the appointing authorities in terms of paragraphs (a) and (c) the Judicial Service Commission shall have regard to the need to constitute a court which is independent and competent and representative in respect of race and gender.

(6) Subsection (5) shall not apply to the first appointment after the commencement of this Constitution of the President of the Constitutional Court under section 97(2).

(7) Vacancies in the Constitutional Court shall be filled—

in the case of a vacancy in the office of a judge appointed under subsection (3), in accordance with that subsection; and in the case of a vacancy in the office of a judge appointed under subsection (4), in accordance with that subsection.

(8) Whenever the President of the Constitutional Court is absent or unable to perform his or her functions, or if the office of President of the Constitutional Court becomes vacant, the President may in consultation with the Cabinet and after consultation with the Chief Justice and, if he or she is available, the President of the Constitutional Court, appoint a judge of the Constitutional Court as Acting President of the Constitutional Court for the period of absence or inability of the President of the Constitutional Court or until the vacancy is filled.

(9) Whenever a judge of the Constitutional Court is absent or unable to perform his or her functions, or if a vacancy among the judges of the Constitutional Court arises, the President may, on the recommendation of the Minister responsible for the administration of justice made in consultation with the President of the Constitutional Court and the Chief Justice, appoint any person qualified in terms of subsection (2), as an acting judge of the Constitutional Court for the period of absence or inability of the judge concerned or until the vacancy is filled: Provided that at all times at least four judges of the Constitutional Court, including acting judges, shall be judges who have been appointed from among the judges of the Supreme Court.

(10) A person may be appointed as Acting President or acting judge of the Constitutional Court irrespective of whether he or she was appointed on a previous occasion as Acting President or acting judge of the Constitutional Court: Provided that no person shall act as an acting judge for a period exceeding six months.

(11) Any appointment made under this section shall be deemed to have been made also in respect of any period during which the person appointed is necessarily engaged in connection with the disposal of any proceedings in which he or she has participated as a judge of the Constitutional Court and which have not yet been disposed of at the expiry of the period for which he or she was appointed.


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 not yet destroyed by the same processes. We make of it a verb, in various forms; he telegraphs, they telegraphed, I shall telegraph, we are telegraphing, the art of telegraphing; other nouns come from it, as telegrapher, telegraphist, telegraphy; we can turn it into an adjective, telegraphic; and this, again, into an adverb, telegraphically. Historical congruency is the last thing we think of in all this. To a Greek word we add, without compunction, endings of wholly diverse descent: the greater part are Germanic, coming down to us from the Anglo-Saxon; but one or two, ic, ical, are Latin; and at least one, ist, comes ultimately from the Greek. Made up, as our English language is, out of two diverse tongues, Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French, and with more or less intermixture of many others, such a condition of things could not be avoided; it is, while practically one homogeneous tongue, historically a composite structure, both in vocabulary and in grammar. Its grammatical apparatus, its system of mobile endings, whereby words may be derived, inflected, and varied, is, indeed, in its larger and more essential part Germanic; but it is also in no insignificant measure Latin; while hosts of Latin words receive Germanic endings, not a few Germanic words appear invested with Latin and French affixes, which have more or less fully acquired in our use the value of formative elements: such are dis-belief, re-light, for-bear-ance, atone-ment, odd-ity, huntr-ess, eat-able, talk-ative.

Hitherto we have taken note only of those effects of the wearing-out process in language which lead to the substitution of one means of expression for another, or which, as in the case of grammatical gender, do away with luxuries of expression which any tongue can well afford to dispense with. But that popular use is not content with abolishing distinctions which are wanting in practical value, with giving up what is otherwise replaced, or can be spared without loss, we shall be fully persuaded, if we merely note what is all the time going on around us. The wholly regrettable inaccuracies of heedless speakers, their confusion of things which ought to be carefully held apart, their obliteration of


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III.] valuable distinction—all these are part and parcel of the ceaseless changes of language, and not essentially different from the rest; they are only that part against which the best public sentiment, a healthy feeling for the conservation of linguistic integrity, arrays itself most strongly, and which therefore are either kept down altogether, or come but slowly and sparingly to acceptance. Let us note a few instances of such linguistic degeneration.

There is in English a long-standing tendency to efface the distinction of form between the imperfect and participle, usually assimilating the former to the latter, though not infrequently also the latter to the former. Spoke and broke, for spake and brake, held for holden, and many others, are of recent acceptance, but now impregnably established; from begin, and a considerable class of like verbs, the two forms he began and he begun, and so forth, are in nearly equal favour; he come for he came, I done for I did, and others like them, are still blunders and vulgarisms; and we may hope that they will always continue such. These alterations find support in one of the analogies of the language, which has doubtless done much to call them forth. In our regular verbs, namely, there is an entire coincidence of form between the preterit and participle. The careless speaker reasons—not consciously, but in effect—thus: If I say I gained and I have gained, I dealt and I have dealt, why not also I sung and I have sung, he drank and he has drank, we held and we have held, they done and they have done?

It is not often, perhaps, that the preterit and participle will stand in connections which fail to show distinctly which form is meant by the speaker or writer. But we have also a few verbs—of which put is a familiar example—in which all distinction of present and preterit is likewise lost: if we say they put, the general requirements of the sense alone can point out the tense, just as if the phrase were so much Chinese.