Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

76 AUSTRALASIA.domaiiis, it forms in some respects a connecting link between botli ; but most of itsspecies are altogether peculiar, so that this great island constitutes an independentzoological world. Of the three hundred and fifty kinds of birds inhabiting theSunda group, ten onlj' have reached Celebes, where there are no less than eightyfound nowhere else.Of its twenty-one mammals, including seven bats, eleven arealso peculiar to the island, while the local butterflies are distinguished from alltheir congeners elsewhere by the outward form of their wings.The Moluccas, lying at the eastern extremity of Indonesia, resemble Timorand Celebes in the poverty of their mammals, of which they have only ten, notcounting the ubiquitous bats, and of this number there is reason to believe thatabout half, amongst others the cynopithek, confined to the island of Batjau, havebeen introduced by man. The typical forms of this insular group approach thoseof Australia, being of the marsupial order, and comprising amongst others the helideusariel, which outwardly resembles a flying squirrel.On the other hand, the Moluccas have a marvellous wealth of birds, their avifaunabeing richer than that of the whole of Europe. Although the explorationof this region is still far from completed, naturalists have alreadj' discovered twohundred and sixty-five kinds of birds, of which one hundred and ninety-five areterrestrial, and most of which, such as the parrakeets, pigeons, and kingfishers,rival in beauty of form and gorgeous plumage those elsewhere found in thetropical zone.The numerous insects also, and especially the butterflies, form theadmiration of explorers by their size and the metallic lustre of their wings. Thelittle island of Amboj-na alone contains more remarkable varieties of lepidopterathan many vast continental regions. Here, in fact, these animal forms may besaid to have reached the highest possible pitch of develojDment. Most of thespecies are pecidiar to the Moluccas, while the genera and types connect thisinsular fauna with that of New Guinea. Although the Asiatic continent seems tobe continued from island to island far into the Pacific Ocean, both Celebes and theMoluccas already belong zoologically to another region of the globe.IXHABITANTS OF INDONESIA.The Eastern Archipelago is shared as well by different races of mankind as bydifferent faunas, but the parting-lines do not coincide for the human and animalforms. While the zoological domains are separated by the Lombok Strait and thebroad Macassar Channel, the limits of the Malayan and Papuan races, with theallied populations, have been shifted much farther towards the east : this linetraverses the islands of Jilolo and Burn, and then trends south-westwards in thedirection of Timor and Sumbawa. The inhabitants of the islands lying on eitherside of these limits again present considerable differences amongst themselves,either offering various shades of transition between the true Malaj's and intrudersof other races, or else belonging to a really original type, the possible survivors ofsome primitive stock. At least fifty languages are current in the archipelago, andeach insular group requires to bo studied apart with the territory occupied by it.