TURDIDÆ. | | |
| | |
1. _Brachypteryx_ | 8 |Himalayas, Ceylon and |
| | Java |
2. Oreocincla | 8 |N. W. Himalayas to E. |Palæarctic, Australian
| | Thibet Ceylon, Burmah,|
| | Malaya, Formosa |
3. Turdus | 26 |The whole region |Almost Cosmopolite
4. Geocichla | 9 |India & Ceylon to Java,|Celebes, Lombock, to
| | Formosa | N. Australia
5. Monticola | 3 |The whole region |Palæarctic, Ethiopian,
| | |Moluccas
6. _Orocætes_ | 2 |N. W. Himalayas, and |
| | India |
7. _Zoothera_ | 3 |W. Himalayas to Aracan,|Lombock, Timor ?
| | Java |
| | |
SYLVIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
8. {_Orthotomus_ | 13 |The whole region |
9. {_Prinia_ | 11 |The whole reg., excl. |
{ | | Philippines |
10. {Drymæca | 13 |The whole reg., excl. |Ethiopian
{ | | Philippines |
11. {Cisticola | 6 |The whole region |Ethiopian, Australian
12. {_Suya_ | 5 |Nepal to S. China and |
{ | | Formosa |
13. {_Megalurus_ | 3 |Central India, Java, |
| | Philippines |
| | |
14. {Acrocephalus | 9 |India to Ceylon, S. |Palæarc., Ethiop.,
{ | | China, and Philippines| Austral.
{(Dumeticola | 2 |Nepal and E. Thibet) |A Palæarctic genus
| | |
15. {Locustella | 4 |Nepal, Hindostan, |Palæarctic
{ | | S. China |
16. {Horites | 2 |Himalayas, Formosa |High Himal., E. Thibet
| | |
17. {Phylloscopus | 10 |All India and Ceylon, |Palæarctic, Ethiopian
{ | | to China, Philippines|
{(Gerygone | 1 |Philippine Islands) |Australian genus
{(Hypolais | 1 |All India, ? migrant) |Palæarctic genus
18. {Abrornis | 26 |The whole reg., excl. |Cashmere, E. Thibet
{ | | Philippines |
19. {Reguloides | 2 |Himalayas and Central |Palæarctic
{ | | India |
{(Regulus | 1 |N. W. Himalayas and |Palæarctic and
| | E. Thibet) | Nearctic
{(Sylvia | 2 |India and Ceylon) |Palæarctic genus
{(Curruca | 2 |India) |Palæarctic genus
| | |
{(Cyanecula | 1 |India) |Palæarctic genus
20. {Calliope | 2 |Himalayas and Central |Palæarctic
{ | | India, Philippine |
{ | | Islands |
21. {Ruticilla | 8 |Himalayas to China and |Palæarctic, Ethiopian
{ | | Formosa |
22. {_Chæmarrhornis_ 1 |Himalayas to Burmah |
23. {_Larvivora_ | 10 |W. Himalayas to Ceylon,|
{ | | Malacca and China |
24. {_Notodela_ | 3 |Himalayas to Pegu, |
{ | | Java, Formosa |
25. {_Tarsiger_ | 2 |Nepal and W. Himalayas |
{(Grandala | 1 |Nepal and E. Thibet, |Palæarctic genus
| | high) |
26. {Copsychus | 6 |The whole region |Madagascar
27. {_Kittacincla_ | 5 |The whole region |
28. {Thamnobia | 2 |N. W. India, Hindostan,|Ethiopian
{ | | and Ceylon |
{(Dromolæa | 1 |N. W. India) |Ethiopian genus
{(Saxicola | 2 |N. W. India) |Palæarctic and
{ | | | Ethiopian
29. {Oreicola ? | 1 |Burmah |Timor
{(Cercomela | 1 |N. W. India, a desert |N. E. Africa,
{ | | genus) | S. W. Asia
30. {Pratincola | 5 |The whole region |Palæarctic, Ethiopian,
| | |Celebes, and Timor
(Accentor | 2 |Himalayas, in winter) |Palæarctic genus
| | |
TIMALIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
31. Pomatorhinus | 20 |The whole region |Australian
32. Malacocercus | 14 |All India to Burmah, |Arabia, Nubia
| | Philippines |
33. Chatarrhæa | 5 |India, Burmah, |Palestine, Abyssinia
| | Philippines |
34. _Layardia_ | 3 |India and Ceylon |
35. _Acanthoptila_ | 1 |Nepal |
36. _Garrulax_ | 22 |The whole region |
37. _Janthocincla_ | 8 |Himalayas to E. Thibet,|
| | Sumatra, Formosa |
38._Gampsorhynchus_| 1 |Nepal |
39. _Grammatoptila_| 1 |N. India |
40._Trochalopteron_| 22 |N. W. Himalayas, India,|
| | China, Formosa |
41. _Actinodura_ | 3 |E. Himalayas, 3,000 to |
| | 10,000 |
42. _Pellorneum_ | 3 |India, Ceylon, |
| | Tenasserim |
43. _Dumetia_ | 2 |India and Ceylon |
44. _Timalia_ | 10 |Malacca to Java |
45. _Stachyris_ | 6 |N. W. Himalayas to |
| | China, Formosa, |
| | Sumatra |
46. _Pyctoris_ | 3 |India, Ceylon, and |
| | Up. Burmah |
47. _Mixornis_ | 8 |Himalayas to Borneo and|
| | Java |
48. _Malacopteron_ | 3 |Malacca to Java |
49. Alcippe | 16 |The whole region |New Guinea
50. _Macronus_ | 1 |Malacca to Java |
51. _Cacopitta_ | 5 |Java, Borneo, Sumatra |
52. Trichastoma | 9 |Nepal, Malacca to Java |Celebes
53. _Napothera_ | 5 |Malacca to Java |
54. Drymocataphus | 6 |Malacca to Java, Ceylon|Timor
55. _Turdinus_ | 4 |Tenasserim, Malacca |
56. _Trichixos_ | 1 |Malacca, Borneo |
57. _Sibia_ | 6 |N. W. Himalayas to |
| | Tenasserim, Formosa |
| | |
PANURIDÆ. | | |
| | |
58. _Paradoxornis_ | 3 |Nepal to Aracan and E. |
| |Thibet, 3,000-6,000 ft.|
59. Suthora | 8 |Himalayas to E. Thibet,|N. W. China, E. Thibet
| | China, Formosa |
60. _Chlenasicus_ | 1 |Sikhim |
| | |
CINCLIDÆ. | | |
| | |
61. Cinclus | 2 |Himalayas, China, and |Palæarctic and
| | Formosa | American
62. Eupetes | 2 |Malacca and Sumatra |New Guinea
63. _Enicurus_ | 9 |N. W. Himalayas (to |
| | 11,000 ft.) to Java |
| | and West China |
64. _Myiophonus_ | 6 |All India (to 9,000 ft.|Turkestan
| | in N. W. Himalayas) |
| | S. China, Formosa, |
| | Java, Sumatra |
| | |
TROGLODYTIDÆ. | | |
| | |
65. _Tesia_ | 2 |Eastern Himalayas |
66. _Pnoepyga_ | 6 |N. W. Himalayas to |
| | E. Thibet, Java |
67. Troglodytes | 1 |Himalayas to E. Thibet |Palæarctic and
| | | American
68. _Rimator_ | 2 |Darjeeling |
| | |
CERTHIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
69. Certhia | 2 |Himalayas |Palæarctic and
| | | Nearctic
70. _Salpornis_ | 1 |Central India |
71. _Rhabdornis_ | 1 |Philippine Islands |
(Tichodroma | 1 |Himalayas in winter) |Palæarctic genus
| | |
SITTIDÆ. | | |
| | |
72. Sitta | 5 |Himalayas to S. India, |Palæarctic and
| | S. China | Nearctic
73. _Dendrophila_ | 2 |All India and Ceylon to|
| | Pegu and Java |
| | |
PARIDÆ. | | |
| | |
74. Parus | 16 |The whole region |Palæarctic and
| | | Nearctic
75. _Melanochlora_ | 2 |Nepal to Malacca and |
| | Sumatra |
76. _Psaltria_ | 1 |West Java |
77. _Ægithaliscus_ | 6 |W. Himalayas to China |Afghanistan
78. _Sylviparus_ | 1 |W. Himalayas to Central|
| | India and E. Thibet |
79. _Cephalopyrus_ | 1 |N. W. Himalayas |
| | |
LIOTRICHIDÆ. | | |
| | |
80. _Liothrix_ | 3 |Nepal to S. W. China |
81. _Siva_ | 3 |Himalayas:--3,000-7,000|
| | ft. |
82. _Minla_ | 4 |Nepal to E. Thibet; |
| | moderate heights |
83. Proparus | 6 |N. W. Himalayas to |Perhaps also
| | E. Thibet; high | Palæarctic
84. _Allotrius_ | 7 |N. W. Himalayas to |
| | Tenasserim, E. Thibet|
| | and Java |
85. _Cutia_ | 2 |Nepal and Sikhim |
86. _Yuhina_ | 4 |Himalayas to E. Thibet,|Perhaps Palæarctic
| | high |
87. _Ixulus_ | 4 |Darjeeling to |
| | Tenasserim |
88. _Myzornis_ | 1 |Nepal and Sikhim |
| | |
PHYLLORNITHIDÆ. | | |
| | |
89. _Phyllornis_ | 10 |The whole region; |
| | excluding China and |
| | Philippines |
90. _Iora_ | 5 |The whole reg., excl. |
| | Philippines |
91. _Erpornis_ | 2 |Nepal and Hainan |
| | |
PYCNONOTIDÆ. | | |
| | |
92. _Microscelis_ | 5 |Burmah, China, Malaya |Japan
93. Pycnonotus | 40 |The whole region |Ethiopian
94. _Hemixus_ | 2 |Himalayas and Hainan |
95. Hypsipetes | 15 |The whole region |Madagascar
96. Criniger | 11 |India, Ceylon, Malaya, |Africa, Moluccas
| | Hainan |
97. _Setornis_ | 3 |Malacca, Sumatra, |
| | Borneo |
98. _Iole_ | 4 |Aracan and Malaya |
| | |
ORIOLIDÆ. | | |
| | |
99. Oriolus | 12 |The whole region |Palæarc. Ethiopian,
| | | Celebes, Flores
100. _Analcipus_ | 3 |Himalayas, Malaya, |
| | Formosa, Hainan |
| | |
CAMPEPHAGIDÆ. | | |
| | |
101. _Pericrocotus_ | 22 |The whole region |Lombock; the Amoor,
| | | migrant
102. Graucalus | 7 |India, Ceylon, Malaya, |Australian
| | Philippines, Hainan |
| | and Formosa |
103. Campephaga | 1 |Philippine Islands |Celebes to N. Guinea
104. _Volvocivora_ | 7 |The whole reg., excl. |
| | Philippines |
105. Lalage | 2 |Malaya and Philippines |Celebes to Pacific Is.
106. _Cochoa_ | 3 |Himalayas and Java |
| | |
DICRURIDÆ. | | |
| | |
107. Dicrurus | 17 |The whole region |Ethiop. and Australian
108. _Bhringa_ | 2 |Himalayas to Burmah and|
| | Java |
109. _Chibia_ | 1 |India to China |Pekin in summer
110. _Chaptia_ | 3 |India to Borneo and |
| | Formosa |
111. _Irena_ | 3 |S. India and Ceylon, |
| | Assam to Malaya and |
| | Philippines |
| | |
MUSCICAPIDÆ. | | |
| | |
112. _Muscicapula_ | 6 |Cashmere to W. China, |
| | S. India |
113. Erythrosterna | 7 |The whole region, |Palæarctic and
| | excluding Philippines| Madagascar
114. Xanthpygia | 2 |Malacca to China |N. China and Japan
115. _Hemipus_ | 1 |India and Ceylon |
116. _Pycnophrys_ | 1 |Java |
117. Hemichelidon | 3 |N. India to Ceylon, and|Eastern Asia
| | China; ? Philippines |
118. _Niltava_ | 3 |Himalayas to W. China |
119. Cyornis | 14 |The whole region |Celebes and Timor
120. Cyanoptila | 1 |Hainan to Japan |Japan and N. China
121. _Eumyias_ | 8 |The whole reg., excl. |
| | Philippines |
122. _Siphia_ | 9 |N. W. India, Ceylon, |
| | Formosa, E. Thibet |
123. _Anthipes_ | 1 |Nepal |
124. _Schwaneria_ | 1 |Borneo |
125. _Hypothymis_ | 1 |The whole region |Celebes
126. Rhipidura | 7 |All India and Ceylon, |
| | Malaya, Philippines |Australian
127. _Chelidorhynx_ | 1 |N. India |
128. _Cryptolopha_ | 1 |The whole region |Celebes
| | |
129. Tchitrea | 6 |The whole region |N. China, and Japan,
| | |Flores, Ethiopian
130. _Philentoma_ | 4 |Malaya and Philippines |
| | |
PACHYCEPHALIDÆ. | | |
| | |
131. Hylocharis | 2 |Aracan to Malaya & |Celebes, Timor
| | Philippines |
| | |
LANIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
132. Lanius | 16 |The whole region |Nearc., Palæarc.,
| | | Ethiop.
133. _Laniellus_ | 1 |Java |
134. _Tephrodornis_ | 5 |India, Ceylon, and |
| | Malaya; Hainan |
| | |
CORVIDÆ. | | |
| | |
135. _Pityriasis_ | 1 |Borneo, Sumatra |
136. _Platylophus_ | 4 |Malaya |
137. Garrulus | 4 |Himalayas, S. China, |Palæarctic
| | Formosa |
138. _Cissa_ | 3 |Himalayas and Aracan to|
| | Java |
139. _Urocissa_ | 7 |N.W. Himalayas, Ceylon,|N. China and Japan
| | Burmah, China, Formosa|
140. _Temnurus_ | 3 |Malaya and Cochin China|
141. _Dendrocitta_ | 8 |All India to S. China, |
| | Formosa, and Sumatra |
142. _Crypsirhina_ | 2 |Java and Burmah |
143. Nucifraga | 2 |Himalayas and E. Thibet|Palæarctic genus
| | 8,000-10,000 feet |
144. Pica | 2 |China and Himalayas of |Palæarctic and
| | Boetan | Nearctic
145. Corvus | 9 |The whole region |Cosmop., excl. S. Am.
(Fregilus | 2 |Himalayas, high) |Palæarctic genus
| | |
NECTARINIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
146. _Æthopaga_ | 13 |Himalayas to W. China &|Celebes
| | Java, Central India |
147. Chalcostetha | 1 |Malaya and Siam |Celebes to New Guinea
148. Arachnothera | 12 |The whole reg., excl. |Celebes, Lombock, New
| | Philippine |Guinea
149. Arachnecthera | 7 |The whole region, excl.|Celebes to New Ireland
| | China |
150. _Nectarophila_ | 4 |India, Ceylon, Malaya, |Celebes
| | Philipp. |
151. _Anthreptes_ | 1 |Malaya and Indo-China |Celebes
| | |
DICÆIDÆ. | | |
| | |
152. Dicæum | 10 |The whole region |Australian
153. Pachyglossa | 1 |Nepal |Celebes
154. _Piprisoma_ | 1 |India and Ceylon |
155. _Prionochilus_ | 4 |Malaya |
156. Zosterops | 8 |The whole region |Ethiopian, Australian
157. _Chalcoparia_ | 1 |Aracan to Malaya |
| | |
HIRUNDINIDÆ. | | |
| | |
158. Hirundo | 10 |The whole region |Cosmopolite
159. Cotyle | 5 |India to China |Palæarc., Ethiop.,
| | | Amer.
160. Chelidon | 3 |India, Borneo |Palæarctic
| | |
FRINGILLIDÆ. | | |
| | |
(Fringilla | 1 |Himalayas, in winter) |Palæarctic genus
(Acanthis | 1 |N. W. Himalayas, in |Palæarctic genus
| | winter) |
(Procarduelis | 1 |High Himalayas) |Palæarctic genus
(Chlorospiza | 1 |China) |Palæarctic and
| | | Ethiopian
161. Passer | 6 |The whole region |Palæarctic and
| | | Ethiopian
(Fringillauda | 1 |High Himalayas) |Palæarctic genus
(Coccothraustes| 2 |High Himalayas) |Palæarctic and
| | | Nearctic
(Mycerobas | 1 |High Himalayas) |Palæarctic genus
162. Eophona | 1 |China |Palæarctic
(Pyrrhula | 4 |Himalayas, winter) |Palæarctic
(Carpodacus | 4 |Himalayas and Central |Palæarctic and
| | India, in winter) | Nearctic
(Loxia | 1 |Snowy Himalayas) |Palæarctic and
| | | Nearctic
(Propyrrhula | 1 |Darjeeling, in winter) |[?] Palæarctic
163. _Hæmatospiza_ | 1 |S. E. Himal., 5,000 to |
| | 10,000 ft. |
| | |
(_S. Fam._ EMBERIZINÆ) | |
| | |
164. Euspiza | 4 |N. W. India to Burmah, |Palæarctic and
| | & China | Nearctic
165. Emberiza | 7 |All India and China, in|Palæarctic genus
| | winter |
| | |
PLOCEIDÆ. | | |
| | |
166. Ploceus | 4 |India & Ceylon, Burmah,|Ethiopian
| | Malaya |
167. Munia | 20 |The whole region |Austro-Malayan
168. Estrilda | 2 |India and Ceylon, |Ethiopian, Australian
| | Burmah, Java |
169. Erythrura | 1 |Java, Sumatra |Moluccas to Fiji
| | | Islands
| | |
STURNIDÆ. | | |
| | |
170. Eulabes | 7 |The whole reg., excl. |Flores, Papua
| | Philippines |
171. _Ampeliceps_ | 1 |Tenasserim to |
| | Cochin-China |
172. _Gymnops_ | 1 |Philippine Islands |
173. Pastor | 1 |All India to Burmah |S. Palæarctic
174. _Acridotheres_ | 6 |The whole region |Celebes
175. _Sturnia_ | 12 |The whole region |N. China & Japan,
| | | Celebes
176. Sturnus | 3 |India and China |Palæarctic
177. _Sturnopastor_ | 3 |Cen. India to Burmah & |
| | Malaya |
178. Calornis | 2 |Malaya and Philippines |[?] Celebes, Moluccas
| | | to Samoan Islands
179. _Saroglossa_ | 1 |W. and Central |
| | Himalayas |
| | |
ARTAMIDÆ. | | |
| | |
180. Artamus | 3 |The whole region |Australian
| | |
ALAUDIDÆ. | | |
| | |
(Otocorys | 1 |N. India, in winter) |Palæarctic and
| | | Nearctic
181. Alauda | 7 |India and China |Palæarctic and
| | | Ethiopian
182. Galerita | 2 |Central India |Palæarctic
183. Calandrella | 2 |India and Burmah |Palæarctic and
| | | Ethiopian
(Melanocorypha | 1 |N. W. India) |Palæarctic
184. Mirafra | 5 |India, Ceylon, and Java|Ethiopian
185. Ammomanes | 1 |Central India |Palæarctic and
| | | Ethiopian
186. Pyrrhulauda | 1 |India and Ceylon |Ethiopian
| | |
MOTACILLIDÆ. | | |
| | |
187. Motacilla | 6 |India and Ceylon to |Palæarctic and
| | China and Philippines| Ethiopian
188. Budytes | 2 |China and Philippines |Palæarctic &
| | | Ethiopian, Moluccas
189. Calobates | 1 |The whole region |Palæarctic
190. _Nemoricola_ | 1 |India, Ceylon, and |
| | Malaya |
191. Authus | 3 |India and China |Cosmopolite
192. Corydalla | 8 |The whole region |Palæarctic, Australian
193. _Heterura_ | 1 |Himalayas |
| | |
EURYLÆMIDÆ. | | |
| | |
194. _Eurylæmus_ | 2 |Malaya |
195. _Serilophus_ | 1 |Himalayas |
196. _Psarisomus_ | 1 |Himalayas |
197. _Corydon_ | 1 |Malacca, Sumatra, |
| | Borneo |
198. _Cymbirhynchus_| 2 |Aracan, Siam, and |
| | Malaya |
199. _Calyptomena_ | 1 |Malacca, Sumatra, |
| | Borneo |
| | |
PITTIDÆ | | |
| | |
200. Pitta | 11 |The whole region |Australian, Ethiopian
201. _Eucichla_ | 3 |Malaya |
202. _Hydrornis_ | 3 |Himalayas and Malaya |
| | |
PICARIÆ. | | |
PICIDÆ. | | |
| | |
203. _Vivia_ | 1 |N. W. Himalayas to E. |
| |Thibet, 3,000-6,000 ft.|
204. _Sasia_ | 2 |Nepal to Malaya and |
| | Borneo |
205. Picus | 14 |The whole region, excl.|Palæarctic, American
| | Philippines |
206. Hyopicus | 1 |Himalayas |N. China
207. _Yungipicus_ | 12 |The whole region |N. China, Japan,
| | | Celebes
208._Reinwardtipicus_ 1 |Penang to Sumatra and |
| | Borneo |
209. _Venilia_ | 2 |Nepal to Sumatra and |
| | Borneo |
210._Chrysocolaptes_| 8 |India, Ceylon, Malaya, |
| | Philippines |
211. _Hemicercus_ | 5 |Malabar, Pegu to Malaya|
212. Gecinus | 12 |All India and Ceylon to|Palæarctic
| | Pegu and Malaya |
213. _Mulleripicus_ | 5 |Malabar, Aracan to |Celebes
| | Malaya and Philippines|
214. _Brachypternus_| 5 |India, Ceylon, and |
| | China |
215. _Tiga_ | 5 |India to Malaya |
216. _Gecinulus_ | 2 |S. Himalayas to Burmah |
217. _Miglyptes_ | 3 |Malaya |
218. _Micropternus_ | 8 |India and Ceylon, to |
| | Borneo and S. China |
| | |
YUNGIDÆ. | | |
| | |
219. Yunx | 1 |Central and S. China |Palæarctic, S. Africa
| | |
INDICATORIDÆ. | | |
| | |
220. Indicator | 2 |Himalayas and Borneo |Ethiopian
| | |
MEGALÆMIDÆ. | | |
| | |
221. _Megalæma_ | 27 |The whole region, excl.|
| | Philippines |
222. _Xantholæma_ | 4 |All India and Ceylon to|
| | Pegu and Malaya |
223. _Psilopogon_ | 1 |Sumatra |
224. _Caloramphus_ | 2 |Malacca, Sumatra and |
| | Borneo |
| | |
CUCULIDÆ. | | |
| | |
225. _Phoenicophaës_| 1 |Ceylon |
226. _Rhinococcyx_ | 1 |Java |
227. _Dasylophus_ | 1 |Philippine Islands |
228. _Lepidogrammus_| 1 |Philippine Islands |
229. _Carpococcyx_ | 1 |Borneo, Sumatra |
230. _Zanclostomus_ | 1 |Malaya |
231. _Rhopodytes_ | 7 |Nepal to Ceylon, Hainan|
| | and Malaya |
232. _Taccocoua_ | 4 |All India, Ceylon, |
| | Malacca |
233. _Poliococcyx_ | 1 |Malacca, Sumatra, |
| | Borneo |
234. _Rhinortha_ | 1 |Malacca, Sumatra, |
| | Borneo |
235. Centropus | 14 |The whole region |Ethiopian, Australian
236. Cuculus | 10 |The whole region |Palæarc., Ethiop.,
| | | Aust.
237. Cacomantis | 9 |The whole region |Australian
238. Chrysococcyx | 5 |The whole region |Ethiopian, Australian
239. _Surniculus_ | 2 |India, Ceylon and |
| | Malaya |
240. Hierococcyx | 6 |The whole region |Celebes, N. China and
| | | Amoorland
241. Coccystes | 2 |The whole region, excl.|Ethiopian
| | Philippines |
242. Eudynamis | 2 |The whole region |Australian
| | |
CORACIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
243. Coracias | 2 |India, Ceylon and |Ethiopian, S.
| | Burmah | Palæarctic, Celebes
244. Eurystomus | 1 |The whole region |Ethiopian, Australian
| | |
MEROPIDÆ. | | |
| | |
245. _Nyctiornis_ | 3 |S. India to Himalayas, |
| | Burmah, Sumatra, and |
| | Borneo |
246. Merops | 5 |The whole region |S. Palæarctic,
| | | Ethiopian,
| | | Australian
| | |
TROGONIDÆ. | | |
| | |
247. _Harpactes_ | 10 |The whole region, excl.|
| | China |
| | |
ALCEDINIDÆ. | | |
| | |
248. Halcyon | 10 |The whole region |S. Palæarctic,
| | | Ethiopian,
| | | Australian
249. _Pelargopsis_ | 7 |The whole region, excl.|Celebes and Timor
| | China |
250. _Carcineutes_ | 2 |Burmah, Siam, and |
| | Malaya |
251. Ceyx | 6 |India and Ceylon, |Moluccas & New Guin.
| | Malaya and Philippines|
252. Alcedo | 5 |The whole region |Palæarctic, Ethiopian,
| | |Austro-Malayan
253. Alcyone | 1 |Philippines |Australian genus
254. Ceryle | 2 |India to S. China |Ethiopian, S.
| | | Palæarctic, American
| | |
BUCEROTIDÆ. | | |
| | |
255. _Buceros_ | 4 |Nepal to Malaya, S. |
| | India, Philippines |
256. _Hydrocissa_ | 7 |India, Ceylon and |
| | Malaya |
257. Berenicornis | 1 |Sumatra |W. Africa
258. Calao | 2 |Tenasserim, Malaya |Austro-Malaya
259. _Aceros_ | 1 |S. E. Himalayas |
260. _Cranorrhinus_ | 2 |Malacca to Borneo and |Celebes
| | Philippines |
261. _Penelopides_ | 1 |Philippines |
262. _Rhinoplax_ | 1 |Sumatra, Borneo |
263. _Meniceros_ | 3 |India and Ceylon to |
| | Tenasserim |
| | |
UPUPIDÆ. | | |
| | |
264. Upupa | 3 |India, Ceylon and |Ethiopian,
| | Burmah | S. Palæarctic
| | |
PODARGIDÆ. | | |
| | |
265. Batrachostomus | 6 |India, Ceylon and |Moluccas
| | Malaya |
| | |
CAPRIMULGIDÆ. | | |
| | |
266. Caprimulgus | 13 |The whole region |The Eastern
| | | Hemisphere
267. _Lyncornis_ | 4 |Burmah, Malaya, & |Celebes
| | Philippines |
| | |
CYPSELIDÆ. | | |
| | |
268. Cypselus | 8 |The region, excl. |The Old World &
| | Philippines | S. Amer.
269. Dendrochelidon | 3 |Ceylon, India, Malaya, |Austro-Malaya
| | Philipp. |
270. Collocalia | 3 |The whole region |Madagascar, Moluccas,
| | | Pacific Islands
271. Chætura | 3 |Ceylon, India, Malaya, |America, Africa
| | Hainan |
| | |
PSITTACI. | | |
CACATUIDÆ. | | |
| | |
(Cacatua | 1 |Philippines) |Australian genus
| | |
PALÆORNITHIDÆ. | | |
| | |
272. Palæornis | 14 |N. W. India to Ceylon, |Ethiopian
| | Siam & Malaya |
273. Prioniturus | 1 |Philippine Islands |Celebes
274. Cyclopsitta | 1 |Philippine Islands |Papuan Islands
275. _Psittinus_ | 1 |Malaya, excl. Java |
276. Tanygnathus | 1 |Philippine Islands |Austro-Malaya
277. Loriculus | 9 |Ceylon, India, Malaya, |Celebes and Moluccas,
| | Philippines | Flores
| | |
COLUMBÆ. | | |
COLUMBIDÆ. | | |
| | |
278. Treron | 21 |The whole region |Ethiopian, Moluccas
279. Ptilopus | 3 |Malaya and Philippines |Australian
280. Carpophaga | 10 |India and Ceylon to |Australian
| | Hainan and Philippines|
281. Columba | 7 |Ceylon and India to |Palæarc., Ethiop.,
| | Tenasserim | Amer.
282. Janthænas | 3 |Philippine, Andaman & |Japan, Moluccas to
| | Nicobar Islands | Samoan Islands
283. Macropygia | 6 |Nepal, Java, Hainan, |Austro-Malaya,
| | Philippines | Australia
284. Turtur | 8 |The whole region |Old World, Austro-
| | | Malay.
285. Chalcophaps | 2 |India, Ceylon, Malaya, |Austro-Malaya,
| | Hainan, Philippines, | Australia
| | Formosa |
286. _Phapitreron_ | 2 |Philippine Islands |
287. Caloenas | 1 |Nicobar and Philippine |Austro-Malaya
| | Islands |
288. Phlegoenas | 2 |Philippine and Sooloo |Austro-Mal. &
| | Islands | Polynesia
289. Geopelia | 1 |Philippine Islands, |Austro-Malaya &
| | Java | Austral.
| | |
GALLINÆ. | | |
PTEROCLIDÆ. | | |
| | |
290. Pterocles | 2 |Central and S. India |S. Palæarctic,
| | | Ethiopian
| | |
TETRAONIDÆ. | | |
| | |
291. Francolinus | 3 |Ceylon and India to |S. Palæarctic,
| | S. China | Ethiopian
292. _Ortygornis_ | 3 |Ceylon to Himalayas, |
| | Sumatra & Borneo |
293. Perdix | 12 |India, Malaya, |Palæarctic
| | Philippines, China |
294. Coturnix | 9 |The whole region |The Eastern Hemisphere
295. _Rollulus_ | 2 |Malacca, Siam, Borneo, |
| | Philipp. |
(Caccabis | 1 |W. Himalayas) |Palæarctic genus
| | |
PHASIANIDÆ. | | |
| | |
296. _Pavo_ | 2 |Ceylon to Himalayas, |
| | S. W. China and Java |
| | |
297. _Argusianus_ | 4 |Siam, Malacca, Borneo |
298. _Polyplectron_ | 5 |Upper Assam to S. W. |
| | China & Sumatra |
(Lophophorus | 3 |Cashmere and E. Thibet)|Palæarctic genus
(Tetraophasis | 1 |E. Thibet) |Palæarctic genus
299. Ceriornis | 5 |N. W. Himalayas to |S. E. Palæarctic
| | W. China |
(Pucrasia | 3 |N. W. Himalayas to N. |Palæarctic genus
| | China and Mongolia) |
300. Phasianus | 3 |W. Himalayas, S. China,|S. Palæarctic
| | Formosa |
301. _Euplocamus_ | 13 |N. W. Himalayas to |
| | China, Sumatra and |
| | Borneo |
302. _Gallus_ | 4 |The region, excl. China|Celebes and Timor
303. _Galloperdix_ | 3 |Central India to Ceylon|
| | |
TURNICIDÆ. | | |
| | |
304. Turnix | 9 |The whole region |S. Palæarc.,
| | | Ethiopian, Australian
| | |
MEGAPODIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
305. Megapodius | 2 |Nicobar Is., |Celebes to Samoan Is.,
| | Philippines, N. W. | N. Australia
| | Borneo |
| | |
ACCIPITRES. | | |
VULTURIDÆ. | | |
| | |
306. Vultur | 1 |Himalayas |S. Palæarctic,
| | | Ethiopian
307. Gyps | 3 |India and Siam |S. Palæarctic,
| | | Ethiopian
308. _Pseudogyps_ | 1 |India and Burmah |N. Ethiopian
309. Neophron | 1 |All India |S. Palæarctic,
| | | Ethiopian
| | |
FALCONIDÆ. | | |
| | |
310. Circus | 4 |India and China |Almost Cosmopolite
311. Astur | 4 |The whole region |Almost Cosmopolite
312. Accipiter | 2 |The whole region |Almost Cosmopolite
313. Buteo | 2 |India to China |Cosmopolite; excl.
| | | Austl.
314. Aquila | 4 |India to China |Nearc, Palæarc.,
| | | Ethiop.
315. Nisaëtus | 2 |India and Ceylon |S. Palæar., Ethiop.,
| | | Aus.
316. Lophotriorchis | 1 |Indo-Malaya |Neotropical
317. Neopus | 1 |India to Burmah and |Celebes and Moluccas
| | Malaya |
318. Spizaëtus | 5 |India to Malaya and |Neotropical,
| | Formosa | Ethiopian,
| | | Austro-Malayan
319. Circaëtus | 1 |Indian peninsula |Palæarc., Ethiop.,
| | | Timor
320. _Spilornis_ | 5 |The whole region |Celebes
321. Butastur | 3 |The whole region |N. E. Africa, Celebes,
| | |New Guinea
322. Haliæetus | 2 |The whole region |Cosmopolite; excl.
| | | Neotropical region
323. Haliastur | 1 |India to Malaya |Austro-Malaya,
| | | Austral.
324. Milvus | 3 |The whole region |The Eastern
| | | Hemisphere.
325. Elanus | 2 |India, Malaya |Africa, Australia
326. Machærhamphus | 1 |Malacca |S. W. Africa & Madag.
327. Pernis | 1 |India |Palæarctic and
| | | Ethiopian, Celebes
328. Baza | 3 |India to Malaya |
| |Moluccas and N. Austrl.|
329. _Hierax_ | 4 |N. India, Burmah, |
| | Malaya |
330. Poliohierax | 1 |Burmah |E. Africa
331. Falco | 8 |The whole region |Almost Cosmopolite
332. Cerchneis | 3 |The whole region |Almost Cosmopolite
| | |
PANDIONIDÆ. | | |
| | |
333. Pandion | 1 |The whole region |Cosmopolite
334. Polioaëtus | 2 |India to Malaya |Indo-Malaya &
| | | Polynesia
| | |
STRIGIDÆ. | | |
| | |
335. Athene | 9 |The whole region |The Eastern Hemisphere
336. _Ninox_ | 7 |The whole region |N. China and Japan
337. Bubo | 4 |India, Ceylon, Malaya |Cosmop. exc. Austr.
| | and Philip. | reg.
338. _Ketupa_ | 3 |The whole region |
339. Scops | 7 |The whole region |Almost Cosmopolite
340. Syrnium | 6 |The whole region |Cosmop. exc. Austr.
| | | reg.
(Asio | 2 |India) |Palæarc., Ethiop.
| | | Amer.
341. Strix | 4 |The whole region |Cosmopolite
342. _Phodilus_ | 2 |Nepal, Malaya |
_Peculiar or very Characteristic Genera of Wading or Swimming Birds._
| | |
GRALLÆ. | | |
RALLIDÆ. | | |
| | |
Rallina | 10 |The whole region |Austro-Malaya
| | |
PARRIDÆ. | | |
| | |
_Hydrophasanus _| 1 |The whole region |
| | |
CHARADRIIDÆ. | | |
| | |
Æsacus | 1 |The whole region |Austro-Malayan, Austra
[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN REGION]
{387}CHAPTER XIII.
THE AUSTRALIAN REGION.
The Australian is the great insular region of the earth. As a whole it is
one of the best marked, and has even been considered to be equal in
zoological value to all the rest of the globe; but its separate portions
are very heterogeneous, and their limits sometimes ill-defined. Its central
and most important masses consist of Australia and New Guinea, in which the
main features of the region are fully developed. To the north-west it
extends to Celebes, in which a large proportion of the Australian
characters have disappeared, while Oriental types are mingled with them to
such an extent that it is rather difficult to determine where to locate it.
To the south-east it includes New Zealand, which is in some respects so
peculiar, that it has even been proposed to constitute it a distinct
region. On the east it embraces the whole of Oceania to the Marquesas and
Sandwich Islands, whose very scanty and often peculiar fauna, must be
affiliated to the general Australian type.
Australia is the largest tract of land in the region, being several times
more extensive than all the other islands combined, and it is here that the
greatest variety of peculiar types have been developed. This
island-continent, being situated in the track of the southern desert zone,
and having no central mountains to condense the vapours from the
surrounding ocean, has a large portion of its interior so parched up and
barren as to be almost destitute of animal life. The most extensive tract
of fertile and well-watered country is on the east and south-east,
{388}where a fine range of mountains reaches, in the Colony of Victoria,
the limits of perpetual snow. The west coast also possesses mountains of
moderate height, but the climate is very dry and hot. The northern portion
is entirely tropical, yet it nowhere presents the luxuriance of vegetation
characteristic of the great island of New Guinea immediately to the north
of it. Taken as a whole, Australia is characterized by an arid climate and
a deficiency of water; conditions which have probably long prevailed, and
under which its very peculiar fauna and flora have been developed. This
fact will account for some of the marked differences between it and the
adjacent sub-regions of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where the climate is
moist, and the vegetation luxuriant; and these divergent features must
never be lost sight of, in comparing the different portions of the
Australian region. In Tasmania alone, which is however, essentially a
detached portion of Australia, a more uniform and moister climate prevails;
but it is too small a tract of land, and has been too recently severed from
its parent mass to have developed a special fauna.
The Austro-Malay sub-region (of which New Guinea is the central and typical
mass) is strikingly contrasted with Australia, being subjected to purely
equatorial conditions,--a high, but uniform temperature, excessive
moisture, and a luxuriant forest vegetation, exactly similar in general
features to that which clothes the Indo-Malay Islands, and the other
portions of the great equatorial forest zone. Such a climate and
vegetation, being the necessary result of its geographical position, must
have existed from remote geological epochs with but little change, and must
therefore have profoundly affected all the forms of life which have been
developed under their influence. Around New Guinea as a centre are grouped
a number of important islands, more or less closely agreeing with it in
physical features, climate, vegetation, and forms of life. In most
immediate connection we place the Aru Islands, Mysol and Waigiou, with
Jobie and the other Islands in Geelvinck Bay, all of which are connected
with it by shallow seas; they possess one of its most characteristic
groups, the Birds of Paradise, and have no doubt only recently (in {389}a
geological sense) been separated from it. In the next rank come the large
islands of the Moluccas on the west, and the range terminating in the
Solomon Islands on the east, both of which groups possess a clearly Papuan
fauna, although deficient in many of the most remarkable Papuan types.
All these islands agree closely with New Guinea itself in being very
mountainous, and covered with a luxuriant forest vegetation; but to the
south-west we find a set of islands extending from Timor to Lombock, which
agree more nearly with Australia, both in climate and vegetation; being
arid and abounding in eucalypti, acacias, and thickets of thorny shrubs.
These, like the Moluccas, are surrounded by deep sea, and it is doubtful
whether they have either of them been actually connected with New Guinea or
Australia in recent geological times; but the general features of their
zoology oblige us to unite all these islands with New Guinea as forming the
Austro-Malay sub-division of the Australian region. Still further west
however, we have the large island of Celebes, whose position is very
difficult to determine. It is mountainous, but has also extensive plains
and low lands. Its climate is somewhat arid in the south, where the woods
are often scattered and thorny, while in the north it is moister, and the
forests are luxuriant. It is surrounded by deep seas, but also by coralline
and volcanic islets, indicating former elevations and subsidences. Its
fauna presents the most puzzling relations, showing affinities to Java, to
the Philippines, to the Moluccas, to New Guinea, to continental India, and
even to Africa; so that it is almost impossible to decide whether to place
it in the Oriental or the Australian region. On the whole the preponderance
of its relations appears to be with the latter, though it is undoubtedly
very anomalous, and may, with almost as much propriety, be classed with the
former. This will be better understood when we come to discuss its
zoological peculiarities.
The next sub-region consists of the extensive series of islands scattered
over the Pacific, the principal groups being the Sandwich Islands, the
Marquesas and Society Islands, the Navigators', Friendly, and Fiji Islands.
New Caledonia and the New {390}Hebrides have rather an uncertain position,
and it is difficult to decide whether to class them with the Austro-Malay
Islands, the Pacific Islands, or Australia. The islands of the west
Pacific, north of the equator, also probably come into this region,
although the Ladrone Islands may belong to the Philippines; but as the
fauna of all these small islets is very scanty, and very little known, they
are not at present of much importance.
There remains the islands of New Zealand, with the surrounding small
islands, as far as the Auckland, Chatham, and Norfolk Islands. These are
situated in the south temperate forest-zone. They are mountainous, and have
a moist, equable, and temperate climate. They are true oceanic islands, and
the total absence of mammalia intimates that they have not been connected
with Australia or any other continent in recent geological times. The
general character of their zoology, no less than their botany, affiliates
them however, to Australia as portions of the same zoological region.
_General Zoological Characteristics of the Australian Region._--For the
purpose of giving an idea of the very peculiar and striking features which
characterise the Australian region, it will be as well at first to confine
ourselves to the great central land masses of Australia and New Guinea,
where those features are manifested in their greatest force and purity,
leaving the various peculiarities and anomalies of the outlying islands to
be dealt with subsequently.
_Mammalia._--The Australian region is broadly distinguished from all the
rest of the globe by the entire absence of all the orders of non-aquatic
mammalia that abound in the Old World, except two--the winged bats
(Chiroptera), and the equally cosmopolite rodents (Rodentia). Of these
latter however, only one family is represented--the Muridæ--(comprising the
rats and mice), and the Australian representatives of these are all of
small or moderate size--a suggestive fact in appreciating the true
character of the Australian fauna. In place of the Quadrumana, Carnivora,
and Ungulates, which abound in endless variety in all the other regions
under equally favourable conditions, Australia possesses two new orders (or
perhaps {391}sub-classes)--Marsupialia and Monotremata, found nowhere else
on the globe except a single family of the former in America. The
Marsupials are wonderfully developed in Australia, where they exist in the
most diversified forms, adapted to different modes of life. Some are
carnivorous, some herbivorous; some arboreal, others terrestrial. There are
insect-eaters, root-gnawers, fruit-eaters, honey-eaters, leaf or
grass-feeders. Some resemble wolves, others marmots, weasels, squirrels,
flying squirrels, dormice or jerboas. They are classed in six distinct
families, comprising about thirty genera, and subserve most of the purposes
in the economy of nature, fulfilled in other parts of the world by very
different groups; yet they all possess common peculiarities of structure
and habits which show that they are members of one stock, and have no real
affinity with the Old-World forms which they often outwardly resemble.
The other order, Monotremata, is only represented by two rare and very
remarkable forms, _Ornithorhynchus_ and _Echidna_, probably the descendants
of some of those earlier developments of mammalian life which in every
other part of the globe have long been extinct.
The bats of Australia all belong to Old-World genera and possess no
features of special interest, a result of the wandering habits of these
aerial mammals. The Rodents are more interesting. They are all more or less
modified forms of mice or rats. Some belong to the widely distributed genus
_Mus_, others to four allied genera, which may be all modifications of some
common Old-World form. They spread all over Australia, and allied species
occur in Celebes and the Papuan Islands, so that although not yet known
from the Moluccas, there can be little doubt that some of them exist there.
_Birds._--The typical Australian region, as above defined, is almost as
well characterized by its birds, as by its mammalia; but in this case the
deficiencies are less conspicuous, while the peculiar and characteristic
families are numerous and important. The most marked deficiency as regards
wide-spread families, is the total absence of Fringillidæ (true finches),
Picidæ (woodpeckers), Vulturidæ (vultures), and Phasianidæ (pheasants).
{392}and among prevalent Oriental groups, Pycnonotidæ (bulbuls),
Phyllornithidæ (green bulbuls), and Megalæmidæ (barbets) are families whose
absence is significant. Nine families are peculiar to the region, or only
just pass its limits in the case of single species. These are Paridiseidæ
(paradise-birds), Meliphagidæ (honey-suckers), Menuridæ (lyre-birds),
Atrichidæ (scrub-birds), Cacatuidæ (cockatoos), Platycercidæ (broad-tailed
and grass-paroquets), Trichoglossidæ (brush-tongued paroquets), Megapodiidæ
(mound-makers), and Casuariidæ (cassowaries). There are also eight very
characteristic families, of which four,--Pachycephalidæ (thick-headed
shrikes), Campephagidæ (caterpillar shrikes), Dicæidæ (flower-peckers), and
Artamidæ (swallow-shrikes)--are feebly represented elsewhere, while the
other four--Ploceidæ (weaver-finches), Alcædinidæ (kingfishers), Podargidæ
(frog-mouths), and Columbidæ (pigeons)--although widely distributed, are
here unusually abundant and varied, and (except in the case of the
Ploceidæ) better represented in the Australian than in any other region. Of
all these the Meliphagidæ (honeysuckers) are the most peculiarly and
characteristically Australian. This family abounds in genera and species;
it extends into every part of the region from Celebes and Lombock on the
west, to the Sandwich Islands, Marquesas, and New Zealand on the east,
while not a single species overpasses its limits, with the exception of one
(_Ptilotis limbata_) which abounds in all the islands of the Timorese
group, and has crossed the narrow strait from Lombock to Baly; but this can
hardly be considered to impugn the otherwise striking fact of wide
diffusion combined with strict limitation, which characterizes it. This
family is the more important, because, like the Trichoglossidæ or
brush-tongued paroquets, it seems to have been developed in co-ordination
with that wealth of nectariferous flowering shrubs and trees which is one
of the marked features of Australian vegetation. It probably originated in
the extensive land-area of Australia itself, and thence spread into all the
tributary islands, where it has become variously modified, yet always in
such close adaptation to the other great features of the Australian fauna,
that it seems unable to maintain itself when subject to the competition of
the more {393}varied forms of life in the Oriental region; to which,
possessing great powers of flight, some species must occasionally have
emigrated. Its presence or absence serves therefore to define and limit the
Australian region with a precision hardly to be equalled in the case of any
other region or any other family of birds.
The Trichoglossidæ, as already intimated, are another of these peculiarly
organized Australian families,--parrots with an extensile brush-tipped
tongue, adapted to extract the nectar and pollen from flowers. These are
also rigidly confined to this region, but they do not range so completely
over the whole of it, being absent from New Zealand (where however they are
represented by a closely allied form _Nestor_), and from the Sandwich
Islands. The Paradiseidæ (birds of paradise and allies) are another
remarkable family, confined to the Papuan group of Islands, and the
tropical parts of Australia. The Megapodiidæ (or mound-builders) are
another most remarkable and anomalous group of birds, no doubt specially
adapted to Australian conditions of existence. Their peculiarity consists
in their laying enormous eggs (at considerable intervals of time) and
burying them either in the loose hot sand of the beach above high-water
mark, or in enormous mounds of leaves, sticks, earth, and refuse of all
kinds, gathered together by the birds, whose feet and claws are enlarged
and strengthened for the work. The warmth of this slightly fermenting mass
hatches the eggs; when the young birds work their way out, and thenceforth
take care of themselves, as they are able to run quickly, and even to fly
short distances, as soon as they are hatched. This may perhaps be an
adaptation to the peculiar condition of so large a portion of Australia, in
respect to prolonged droughts and scanty water-supply, entailing a
periodical scarcity of all kinds of food. In such a country the confinement
of the parents to one spot during the long period of incubation would often
lead to starvation, and the consequent death of the offspring. But the same
birds with free power to roam about, might readily maintain themselves.
This peculiar constitution and habit, which enabled the Megapodii to
maintain an existence under the unfavourable conditions of their
{394}original habitat gives them a great advantage in the luxuriant islands
of the Moluccas, to which they have spread. There they abound to a
remarkable extent, and their eggs furnish a luxurious repast to the
natives. They have also reached many of the smallest islets, and have
spread beyond the limits of the region to the Philippines, and
North-Western Borneo, as well as to the remote Nicobar Islands.
The Platycercidæ, or broad-tailed paroquets, are another wide-spread
Australian group, of weak structure but gorgeously coloured, ranging from
the Moluccas to New Zealand and the Society Islands, and very
characteristic of the region, to which they are strictly confined. The
Cockatoos have not quite so wide a range, being confined to the
Austro-Malayan and Australian sub-regions, while one species extends into
the Philippine Islands. The other two peculiar families are more restricted
in their range, and will be noticed under the sub-regions to which they
respectively belong.
Of the characteristic families, the Pachycephalidæ, or thick-headed
shrikes, are especially Australian, ranging over all the region, except New
Zealand; while only a single species has spread into the Oriental, and one
of doubtful affinity to the Ethiopian region. The Artamidæ, or
swallow-shrikes, are also almost wholly confined to the region, one species
only extending to India. They range to the Fiji Islands on the east, but
only to Tasmania on the south. These two families must be considered as
really peculiar to Australia. The Podargidæ, or frog-mouths--large,
thick-billed goat-suckers--are strange birds very characteristic of the
Australian region, although they have representatives in the Oriental and
Neotropical regions. Campephagidæ (caterpillar-shrikes) also abound, but
they are fairly represented both in India and Africa. The Ploceidæ, or
weaver-birds, are the finches of Australia, and present a variety of
interesting and beautiful forms.
We now come to the kingfishers, a cosmopolitan family of birds, yet so
largely developed in the Australian region as to deserve special notice.
Two-thirds of all the genera are found here, and no less than 10 out of the
19 genera in the family are {395}peculiar to the Australian region. Another
of the universally distributed families which have their metropolis here,
is that of the Columbidæ or pigeons. Three-fourths of the genera have
representatives in the Australian region, while two-fifths of the whole are
confined to it; and it possesses as many species of pigeons as any other
two regions combined. It also possesses the most remarkable forms, as
exemplified in the great crowned pigeons (_Goura_) and the hook-billed
_Didunculus_, while the green fruit-pigeons (_Ptilopus_) are sometimes
adorned with colours vying with those of the gayest parrots or chatterers.
This enormous development of a family of birds so defenceless as the
pigeons, whose rude nests expose their eggs and helpless young to continual
danger, may perhaps be correlated, as I have suggested elsewhere (Ibis,
1865, p. 366), with the entire absence of monkeys, cats, lemurs, weasels,
civets and other arboreal mammals, which prey on eggs and young birds. The
very prevalent green colour of the upper part of their plumage, may be due
to the need of concealment from their only enemies,--birds of prey; and
this is rendered more probable by the fact that it is among the pigeons of
the small islands of the Pacific (where hawks and their allies are
exceedingly scarce) that we alone meet with species whose entire plumage is
a rich and conspicuous yellow. Where the need of concealment is least, the
brilliancy of colour has attained its maximum. We may therefore look upon
the genus _Ptilopus_, with its fifty species whose typical coloration is
green, with patches of bright blue, red, or yellow on the head and breast,
as a special development suited to the tropical portion of the Australian
region, to which it is almost wholly confined.
It will be seen from the sketch just given, that the ornithological
features of the Australian region are almost as remarkable as those
presented by its Mammalian fauna; and from the fuller development attained
by the aërial class of birds, much more varied and interesting. None of the
other regions of the earth can offer us so many families with special
points of interest in structure, or habits, or general relations. The
paradise-birds, the honeysuckers, the brush-tongued paroquets, the
mound-builders, and the cassowaries--all strictly peculiar {396}to the
region--with such remarkable developments as we have indicated in the
kingfishers and pigeons, place the Australian region in the first rank for
the variety, singularity, and interest of its birds, and only second to
South America as regards numbers and beauty.
_Reptiles._--In Reptiles the peculiarity of the main Australian region is
less marked, although the fauna is sufficiently distinct. There is no
family of snakes confined to the region, but many peculiar genera of the
families Pythonidæ and Elapidæ. About two-thirds of the Australian snakes
belong to the latter family, and are poisonous; so that although the
Crotalidæ and Viperidæ are absent, there are perhaps a larger proportion of
poisonous to harmless snakes than in any other part of the world. According
to Mr. Gerard Krefft the proportion varies considerably in the different
colonies. In Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland the proportion is
about two to one; in West Australia three to one; and in South Australia
six to one. In Tasmania there are only 3 species and all are poisonous. The
number of species, as in other parts of the world, seems to increase with
temperature. The 3 in Tasmania have increased to 12 in Victoria, 15 in
South Australia and the same in West Australia; 31 in New South Wales, and
42 in sub-tropical Queensland.
The lizards of Australia have lately been catalogued by Dr. Günther in the
concluding part of the "Voyage of the Erebus and Terror," issued in 1875.
They belong to 8 families, 3 of which are peculiar; 57 genera of which 36
are peculiar; and about 140 species, all but 2 or 3 of which are peculiar.
The scinks and geckoes form the great bulk of the Australian lizards, with
a few Agamidæ, Gymnopthalmidæ, and Varanidæ. The three peculiar families
are the Pygopodidæ, Aprasiidæ and Lialidæ; comprising only 4 genera and 7
species. The above all belong to Australia proper. Those of the other
sub-regions are few in number and will be noticed under their respective
localities. They will perhaps bring up the number of genera to 70. West and
South Australia seem to offer much peculiarity in their lizards; these
districts possessing 12 peculiar genera, {397}while a much smaller number
are confined to the East and South-East, or to the North.
Among the fresh-water turtles of the family Chelydidæ there are three
peculiar genera--_Chelodina_, _Chelemys_, and _Elseya_, all from Australia.
_Amphibia._--No tailed amphibians are known from the whole region, but no
less than eleven of the families of tail-less Batrachians (toads and frogs)
are known to inhabit some part or other of it. A peculiar family
(Xenorhinidæ), consisting of a single species, is found in New Guinea; the
true toads (Bufonidæ) are only represented by a single species of a
peculiar genus in Australia, and by a _Bufo_ in Celebes. Nine of the
families are represented in Australia itself, and the following genera are
peculiar to it:--_Pseudophryne_ (Phryniscidæ), _Pachybatrachus_, and
_Chelydobatrachus_ (Engystomydæ); _Helioporus_ (Alytidæ); _Pelodyras_ and
_Chirodyras_ (Pelodryadæ); _Notaden_ (Bufonidæ).
_Fresh-water Fish._--There is only one peculiar family of fresh-water
fishes in this region--the Gadopsidæ--represented by a single genus and
species. The other species of Australia belong to the families Trachinidæ,
Atherinidæ, Mugillidæ, Siluridæ, Homalopteræ, Haplochitonidæ, Galaxidæ,
Osteoglossidæ, Symbranchidæ, and Sirenoidei; most of the genera being
peculiar. The large and widely-distributed families, Cyprinodontidæ and
Cyprinidæ, are absent. The most remarkable fish is the recently discovered
_Ceratodus_, allied to the _Lepidosiren_ of Tropical America, and
_Protopterus_ of Tropical Africa, the three species constituting the
Sub-class Dipnoi, remains of which have been found fossil in the Triassic
formation.
_Summary of Australian Vertebrata._--In order to complete our general
sketch of Australian zoology, and to afford materials for comparison with
other regions, we will here summarize the distribution of Vertebrata in the
entire Australian region, as given in detail in the tables at the end of
this chapter. When an undoubted Oriental family or genus extends to Celebes
only we do not count it as belonging to the Australian region, that island
being so very anomalous and intermediate in character.
{398}The Australian region, then, possesses examples of 18 families of
Mammalia, 8 of which are peculiar; 71 of Birds, 16 being peculiar; 31 of
Reptiles, 4 being peculiar; 11 of Amphibia, with 1 peculiar; and 11 of
Fresh-water fish, with 1 peculiar. In all, 142 families of Vertebrates, 30
of which are almost or quite confined to it, or between one-fourth and
one-fifth of the whole number.
The genera of Mammalia occurring within the limits of this region are 70,
of which 45 are almost, or quite, confined to it.
Of Land-Birds there are 296 genera, 196 of which are equally limited. The
proportion is in both cases very nearly five-eighths.
This shows a considerable deficiency both in families of Vertebrates and
genera of Mammalia, as compared with the Oriental and Ethiopian regions;
while in genera of Birds it is a little superior to the latter in total
numbers, and considerably so in the proportion of peculiar types.
_Supposed Land Connection between Australia and South America._
We may now consider how far the different classes and orders of vertebrates
afford indications that during past ages there has been some closer
connection between Australia and South America than that which now exists.
Among Mammalia we have the remarkable fact of a group of marsupials
inhabiting South America, and extending even into the temperate regions of
North America, while they are found in no other part of the globe beyond
the limits of the Australian region; and this has often been held to be
evidence of a former connection between the two countries. A preliminary
objection to this view is, that the opossums seem to be rather a tropical
group, only one species reaching as far as 42° south latitude on the west
coast of South America; but whatever evidence we have which seems to
require a former union of these countries shows that it took place, if at
all, towards their cold southern limits, the tropical faunas on the whole
showing no similarity. This is not a very strong objection, since climates
may have changed in the south to as great an extent as we {399}know they
have in the north. Perhaps a more important consideration is, that
_Didelphys_ is a family type unknown in Australia; and this implies that
the point of common origin is very remote in geological time. But the most
conclusive fact is that in the Eocene and Miocene periods this very family,
Didelphyidæ, existed in Europe, while it only appeared in America in the
Post-pliocene or perhaps the Pliocene period; so that it is really an
Old-World group, which, though long since extinct in its birthplace, has
survived in America, to which country it is a comparatively recent
emigrant. Primeval forms of marsupials we know abounded in Europe during
much of the Secondary epoch, and no doubt supplied Australia with the
ancestors of the present fauna. It is clear, therefore, that in this case
there is not a particle of evidence for any former union between Australia
and South America; while it is almost demonstrated that both derived their
marsupials from a common source in the northern hemisphere.
Birds offer us more numerous but less clearly defined cases of this kind.
Among Passeres, the wonderful lyre bird (_Menura_) is believed by some
ornithologists to be decidedly allied to the South American Pteroptochidæ,
while others maintain that it is altogether peculiar, and has no such
affinity. The Australian Pachycephalidæ have also been supposed to find
their nearest allies in the American Vireonidæ, but this is, perhaps,
equally problematical. That the mound-makers (Megapodiidæ) of the
Australian region are more nearly allied to the South American curassows
(Cracidæ) than to any other family, is perhaps better established; but if
proved, it is probably due, as in the case of the marsupials, to the
survival of an ancient and once wide-spread type, and thus lends no support
to the theory of a land connection between the two regions. A recent
author, Professor Garrod, classes _Phaps_ and other Australian genera of
pigeons along with _Zenaida_ and allied South American forms; but here
again the affinity, if it exists, is so remote that the explanation already
given will suffice to account for it. There remain only the penguins of the
genus _Eudyptes_; and these have almost certainly passed from one region to
the other, but {400}no actual land connection is required for birds which
can cross considerable arms of the sea.
Reptiles again seem to offer no more support to the view than do mammalia
or birds. Among snakes there are no families in common that have not a very
wide distribution. Among lizards the Gymnopthalmidæ are the only family
that favour the notion, since they are found in Australia and South
America, but not in the Oriental region. Yet they occur in both the
Palæarctic and Ethiopian regions, and their distribution is altogether too
erratic to be of any value in a case of this kind; and the same remarks
apply to the tortoises of the family Chelydidæ.
The Amphibia, however, furnish us with some more decided facts. We have
first the family of tree-frogs, Pelodryade, confined to the two regions;
_Litoria_, a genus of the family Hylidæ peculiar to Australia, but with one
species in Paraguay; and in the family Discoglossidæ, the Australian genus
_Chiroleptes_ has its nearest ally in the Chilian genus _Calyptocephalus_.
Fresh-water fishes give yet clearer evidence. Three groups are exclusively
found in these two regions; _Aphritis_, a fresh-water genus of Trachinidæ,
has one species in Tasmania and two others in Patagonia; the Haplochitonidæ
inhabit only Terra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands and South Australia;
while the genus _Galaxias_ (forming the family Galaxidæ) is confined to
South Temperate America, Australia, and New Zealand. We have also the genus
_Osteoglossum_ confined to the tropical rivers of Eastern South America,
the Indo-Malay Islands and Australia.
It is important here to notice that the heat-loving Reptilia afford hardly
any indications of close affinity between the two regions, while the
cold-enduring amphibia and fresh-water fish, offer them in abundance.
Taking this fact in connection with the absence of all indications of close
affinity among the mammalia and terrestrial birds, the conclusion seems
inevitable that there has been no land-connection between the two regions
within the period of existing species, genera, or families. Yet some
interchange of amphibia and fresh-water {401}fishes, as of plants and
insects, has undoubtedly occurred, but this has been effected by other
means. If we look at a globe we see at once how this interchange may have
taken place. Immediately south of Cape Horn we have the South Shetland
Islands and Graham's land, which is not improbably continuous, or nearly
so, with South Victoria land immediately to the south of New Zealand. The
intervening space is partly occupied by the Auckland, Campbell, and
Macquaries' Islands, which, there is reason to believe are the relics of a
great southern extension of New Zealand. At all events they form points
which would aid the transmission of many organisms; and the farthest of the
Macquaries' group, Emerald Island, is only 600 miles from the outlying
islets of Victoria land. The ova of fish will survive a considerable time
in the air, and the successful transmission of salmon ova to New Zealand
packed in ice, shows how far they might travel on icebergs. Now there is
evidently some means by which ova or young fishes are carried moderate
distances, from the fact that remote alpine lakes and distinct river
systems often have the same species. Glaciers and icebergs generally have
pools of fresh water on their surfaces; and whatever cause transmits fish
to an isolated pond might occasionally stock these pools, and by this means
introduce the fishes of one southern island into another. Batrachians,
which are equally patient of cold, might be transported by similar means;
while, as Mr. Darwin has so well shown, (_Origin of Species_, 6th Ed. p.
345) there are various known modes by which plants might be transmitted,
and we need not therefore be surprised that botanists find a much greater
similarity between the production of the several Southern lands and
islands, than do zoologists. It is important to notice that, however this
intercommunication was effected, it has continued down to the epoch of
existing species; for Dr. Günther finds the same species of fresh-water
fish (_Galaxias attenuatus_) inhabiting Tasmania, New Zealand, the Falkland
Islands, and Temperate South America; while another species is common to
New Zealand and the Auckland Islands. We cannot believe that a land
connection has existed between all these remote lands within the period of
existence of this one species of fish, {402}not only on account of what we
know of the permanence of continents and deep oceans, but because such a
connection must have led to much more numerous and important cases of
similarity of natural productions than we actually find. And if within the
life of _species_ such interchange may have taken place across seas of
greater or less extent, still more easy is it to understand, how, within
the life of _genera_ and _families_, a number of such interchanges may have
occurred; yet always limited to those groups whose conditions of life
render transmission possible. Had an actual land connection existed within
the temperate zone, or during a period of warmth in the Antarctic regions,
there would have been no such strict limitations to the inter-migration of
animals. It may be held to support the view that floating ice has had
_some_ share in the transmission of fish and amphibia, when we find that in
the case of the narrow tropical sea dividing Borneo from Celebes and the
Moluccas, no proportionate amount of transmission has taken place, but
numerous species, genera, and whole families, terminate abruptly at what we
have other reasons for believing to be the furthest limits of an ancient
continent. We can hardly suppose, however, that this mode of transmission
would have sufficed for such groups as tree-frogs, which are inhabitants of
the more temperate or even warm portions of the two southern lands. Some of
these cases may perhaps be explained by the supposition of a considerable
extent of land in the South-Temperate and Antarctic regions now submerged,
and by a warm or temperate climate analogous to that which prevailed in the
Arctic regions during some part of the Miocene epoch; while others may be
due to cases of survival in the two areas of once wide-spread groups, a
view supported in the case of the Amphibia by the erratic manner in which
many of the groups are spread over the globe.
From an examination of the facts presented by the various classes of
vertebrates, we are, then, led to the conclusion, that there is no evidence
of a former land-connection between the Australian and Neotropical regions;
but that the various scattered resemblances in their natural productions
{403}that undoubtedly occur, are probably due to three distinct causes.
First, we have the American Didelphyidæ, among Mammals, and the Cracidæ,
among birds, allied respectively to the Marsupials and the Megapodiidæ of
Australia. This is probably more a coincidence than an affinity, due to the
preservation of ancient wide-spread types in two remote areas, each cut off
from the great northern continental masses, in which higher forms were
evolved leading to the extinction of the lower types. In each of these
southern isolated lands the original type would undergo a special
development; in the one case suited to an arboreal existence, in the other
to a life among arid plains.
The second case is that of the tree-frogs, and the genus _Osteoglossum_
among fishes; and is most likely due to the extension and approximation of
the two southern continents, and the existence of some intermediate lands,
during a warm period when facilities would be afforded for the transmission
of a few organisms by the causes which have led to the exceptional
diffusion of fresh-water productions in all parts of the world. As however
_Osteoglossum_ occurs also in the Sunda Islands, this may be a case of
survival of a once wide-spread group.
The third case is that of the same genera and even species of fish, and
perhaps of frogs, in the two countries; which may be due to transmission
from island to island by the aid of floating ice, with or without the
assistance of more intervening lands than now exist.
Having arrived at these conclusions from a consideration of the vertebrata,
we shall be in a position to examine how far the same causes will explain,
or agree with, the distribution of the invertebrate groups, or elucidate
any special difficulties we may meet with in the relations of the
sub-regions.
_Insects._
The insects of the Australian region are as varied, and in some respects as
peculiar as its higher forms of life. As we have already indicated in our
sketch of the Oriental region, a vast number of forms inhabit the
Austro-Malay sub-region {404}which are absent from Australia proper. Such
of these as are common to the Malay archipelago as a whole, have been
already noted; we shall here confine ourselves more especially to the
groups peculiar to the region, which are almost all either Australian or
Austro-Malayan, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand being very poor in
insect life.
_Lepidoptera._--Australia itself is poor in butterflies, except in its
northern and more tropical parts, where green _Ornithopteræ_ and several
other Malayan forms occur. In South Australia there are less than
thirty-five species, whereas in Queensland there are probably over a
hundred. The peculiar Australian forms are few. In the family Satyridæ,
_Xenica_ and _Heteronympha_, with _Hypocista_ extending to New Guinea;
among the Lycænidæ, _Ogyris_ and _Utica_ are confined to Australia proper,
and _Hypochrysops_ to the region; and in Papilionidæ, the remarkable
_Eurycus_ is confined to Australia, but is allied to _Euryades_, a genus
found in Temperate South America (La Plata), and to the _Parnassius_ of the
North-Temperate zone.
The Austro-Malay sub-region has more peculiar forms. _Hamadryas_, a genus
of Danaidæ, approximates to some South American forms; _Hyades_ and
_Hyantis_ are remarkable groups of Morphidæ; _Mynes_ and _Prothoë_ are fine
Nymphalidæ, the former extending to Queensland; _Dicallaneura_, a genus of
Erycinidæ, and _Elodina_, of Pieridæ, are also peculiar forms. The fine
_Ægeus_ group of _Papilio_, and _Priamus_ group of _Ornithoptera_, also
belong exclusively to this region.
_Xois_ is confined to the Fiji Islands, _Bletogona_ to Celebes, and
_Acropthalmia_ to New Zealand, all genera of Satyridæ. Seventeen genera in
all are confined to the Australian region.
Among the Sphingina, _Pollanisus_, a genus of Zygænidæ, is Australian; also
four genera of Castniidæ--_Synemon_, _Euschemon_, _Damias_, and _Cocytia_,
the latter being confined to the Papuan islands. The occurrence of this
otherwise purely South American family in the Australian region, as well as
the affinity of _Eurycus_ and _Euryades_ noticed above, is interesting; but
as we have seen that the genera and families of insects are more permanent
than those of the higher animals, and as the groups in question are
{405}confined to the warmer parts of both countries, they may be best
explained as cases of survival of a once wide-spread type, and may probably
date back to the period when the ancestors of the Marsupials and Megapodii
were cut off from the rest of the world.
_Coleoptera._--The same remark applies here as in the Lepidoptera,
respecting the affinity of the Austro-Malay fauna to that of Indo-Malay
Islands; but Australia proper is much richer in beetles than in
butterflies, and exhibits much more speciality. Although the other two
parts of the Australian region (Polynesia and New Zealand) are very poor in
beetles, it will, nevertheless, on the whole compare favourably with any of
the regions except the very richest.
Cicindelidæ are not very abundant. _Therates_ and _Tricondyla_ are the
characteristic genera in Austro-Malaya, but are absent from Australia,
where we have _Tetracha_ as the most characteristic genus, with one species
of _Megacephala_ and two of _Distypsidera_, a genus which is found also in
New Zealand and some of the Pacific Islands. The occurrence of the South
American genus, _Tetracha_, may perhaps be due to a direct transfer by
means of intervening lands during the warm southern period; but considering
the permanence of coleopterous forms (as shown by the Miocene species
belonging almost wholly to existing genera), it seems more probable that it
is a case of the survival of a once wide-spread group.
Carabidæ are well represented, there being no less than 94 peculiar genera,
of which 19 are confined to New Zealand. The Australian genera of most
importance are _Carenum_ (68 species), _Promecoderus_ (27 species),
_Silphomorpha_ (32 species), _Adelotopus_ (27 species), _Scaraphites_ (25
species), _Notonomus_ (18 species), _Gnathoxys_ (12 species), _Eutoma_ (9
species), _Ænigma_ (15 species), _Lacordairea_ (8 species), _Pamborus_ (8
species), _Catadromus_ (4 species),--the latter found in Australia and
Celebes. Common to Australia and New Zealand are _Mecodema_ (14 species),
_Homalosoma_ (32 species), _Dicrochile_ (12 species), and _Scopodes_ (5
species). The larger genera, confined to New Zealand only, are _Metaglymma_
(8 species), and _Demetrida_ (3 species). The curious genus _Pseudomorpha_
(10 species), is divided between California, Brazil, {406}and Australia;
and the Australian genera, _Adelotopus_, _Silphomorpha_, and
_Sphallomorpha_, form with it a distinct tribe of Coleoptera. These being
all confined to the warmer regions, and having so scattered a distribution,
are no doubt the relics of a widespread group. The Australian genus,
_Promecoderus_, has, however, closely allied genera (_Cascelius_ and its
allies), in Chili and Patagonia; while two small genera confined to the
Auckland Islands (_Heterodactylus_ and _Pristancyclus_) are allied to a
group found only in Terra-del-Fuego and the Falkland Islands, (_Migadops_);
and in these cases we may well believe that a direct transmission has taken
place by some of the various means already indicated.
In Lucanidæ, Australia is only moderately rich, having 7 peculiar genera.
The most important are _Ceratognathus_ and _Rhyssonotus_, confined to
Australia; _Lissotes_ to Australia and New Zealand; _Lamprima_ to Australia
and Papua. _Mitophyllus_ and _Dendroblax_ inhabit New Zealand only; while
_Syndesus_ is found in Australia, New Caledonia, and tropical South
America.
The beautiful Cetoniidæ are poorly represented, there being only 3 peculiar
genera;--_Schizorhina_, mainly Australian, but extending to Papua and the
Moluccas; _Anacamptorhina_, confined to New Guinea, and _Sternoplus_ to
Celebes. _Lomaptera_ is very characteristic of the Austro-Malay Islands.
This almost tropical family shows no approximations between the Australian
and Neotropical faunas.
In Buprestidæ, the Australian region is the richest, possessing no less
than 47 genera, of which 20 are peculiar to it. Of these, 15 are peculiar
to Australia itself, the most important being _Stigmodera_ (212 species),
_Ethon_ (13 species), and _Nascio_ (3 species); _Cisseis_ (17 species), and
the magnificent _Calodema_ (3 species), are common to Australia and
Austro-Malaya; while _Sambus_ (10 species) and _Anthaxomorpha_ (4 species),
with some smaller groups, are peculiarly Austro-Malayan. In this family
occur several points of contact with the Neotropical region. _Stigmodera_
is said to have a species in Chili, while there are undoubtedly several
allied genera in Chili and South Temperate America. The genus _Curis_ has 5
Australian and 3 Chilian species, and {407}_Acherusia_ has 2 species in
Brazil, 1 in Australia. These resemblances may probably have arisen from
intercommunication during the warm southern period, when floating timber
would occasionally transmit a few larvæ of this family from island to
island across the antarctic seas. When the cold period returned, they would
spread northward, and become more or less modified under the new physical
conditions and organic competition, to which they were subjected.
We now come to the very important group of Longicorns, in which the
Australian region as a whole, is very rich, possessing 360 genera, of which
263 are peculiar to it. Of these about 50 are confined to the Austro-Malay
Islands, 12 to New Zealand, and the remainder to Australia proper with
Tasmania. Of the genera confined to, or highly characteristic of Australia,
the following are the most important:--_Cnemoplites_, belonging to the
Prionidæ; _Phoracantha_, to the Cerambycidæ; _Zygocera_, _Hebecerus_,
_Symphyletes_, and _Rhytidophora_, to the Lamiidæ. Confined to the
Austro-Malay Islands are _Tethionea_ (Cerambycidæ): _Tmesisternus_,
_Arrhenotus_, _Micracantha_, and _Sybra_ (Lamiidæ); but there are also such
Malayan genera as _Batocera_, _Gnoma_, _Praonetha_, and _Sphenura_, which
are very abundant in the Austro-Malay sub-region. A species of each of the
Australian genera, _Zygocera_, _Syllitus_, and _Pseudocephalus_, is said to
occur in Chili, and one of the tropical American genus, _Hammatochærus_, in
tropical Australia; an amount of resemblance which, as in the case of the
Buprestidæ, may be imputed to trans-oceanic migration during the Southern
warm period. This concludes our illustrations of the distribution of some
of the more important groups of Australian insects; and it will be admitted
that we have not met with any such an amount of identity with the fauna of
Temperate South America, as to require us to modify the conclusions we
arrived at from a consideration of the vertebrate groups.
_Land-Shells._--The distribution of many of the larger genera of
land-shells is very erratic, while others are exceedingly restricted, so
that it requires an experienced conchologist to investigate the affinities
of the several groups, and thus work {408}out the important facts of
distribution. All that can be done here is to note the characteristic and
peculiar genera, and any others presenting features of special interest.
In the great family of the snails (Helicidæ), the only genera strictly
confined to the region are, _Partula_, now containing above 100 species,
and ranging over the Pacific from the Solomon Isles on the west, to the
Sandwich Islands and Tahiti on the east; and _Achatinella_, now containing
nearly 300 species, and wholly confined to the Sandwich Islands.
_Pfeifferia_ is confined to the Philippine Islands and Moluccas;
_Cochlostyla_ to the Indo-Malay Islands and Australia; _Bulimus_ occurs in
most of the insular groups, including New Zealand, but is absent from
Australia.
Among the Aciculidæ, the widely-scattered _Truncatella_ is the only genus
represented. Among Diplommatinidæ, _Diplommatina_ is the characteristic
genus, ranging over the whole region, and found elsewhere as far as India,
with one species in Trinidad. The extensive family Cyclostomidæ, is not
well represented. Seven genera reach the Austro-Malay Islands, one of
which, _Registoma_, is confined to the Philippines, Moluccas, New
Caledonia, and the Marshall Islands. _Omphalotropis_ is the most
characteristic genus, ranging over the whole region; _Callia_ is confined
to the Philippines, Ceram, and Australia; _Realia_ to New Zealand and the
Marquesas. The genus _Helicina_ alone represents the Helicinidæ, and is
found in the whole region except New Zealand. The number of species known
from Australia is perhaps about 300; while the Polynesian sub-region,
according to Mr. Harper Pease, contains over 600; the Austro-Malay Islands
will furnish probably 200; and New Zealand about 100; making a total of
about 1,200 species for the whole region.
AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS.
Few of the great zoological regions comprise four divisions so strongly
contrasted as these, or which present so many interesting problems. We have
first the Austro-Malay Islands, an equatorial forest-region teeming with
varied and beautiful forms of life; next we have Australia itself, an
island-continent with its satellite {409}Tasmania, both tropical and
temperate, but for the most part arid, yet abounding in peculiar forms in
all the classes of animals; then come the Polynesian Islands, another
luxuriant region of tropical vegetation, yet excessively poor in most of
the higher groups of animals as well as in some of the lower; and lastly,
we have New Zealand, a pair of temperate forest-clad islands far in the
southern ocean, with a very limited yet strange and almost wholly peculiar
fauna. We have now to consider the general features and internal relations
of the faunas of each of these sub-regions, together with any external
relations which have not been discussed while treating the region as a
whole.
_I. Austro-Malayan Sub-region._
The central mass on which almost every part of this sub-region is clearly
dependent, is the great island of New Guinea, inhabited by the Papuan race
of mankind; and this, with the surrounding islands, which are separated
from it by shallow seas and possess its most marked zoological features,
are termed Papua. A little further away lie the important groups of the
Moluccas on one side and the Eastern Papuan Islands on the other, which
possess a fauna mainly derivative from New Guinea, yet wanting many of its
distinctive types; and, in the case of the Moluccas possessing many groups
which are not Australian, but derived from the adjacent Oriental region. To
the south of these we have the Timor group, whose fauna is clearly
derivative, from Australia, from Java, and from the Moluccas. Lastly comes
Celebes, whose fauna is most complex and puzzling, and, so far as we can
judge, not fundamentally derivative from any of the surrounding islands.
_Papua, or the New Guinea Group._--New Guinea is very deficient in Mammalia
as compared with Australia, though this apparent poverty may, in part,
depend on our very scanty knowledge. As yet only four of the Australian
families of Marsupials are known to inhabit it, with nine genera, several
of which are peculiar. It also possesses a peculiar form of wild pig; but
as yet no other non-marsupial terrestrial mammal has been discovered,
except a rat, described by Dr. Gray as _Uromys {410}aruensis_, but about
the locality of which there seems some doubt.[13] Omitting bats, of which
our knowledge is very imperfect, the Papuan Mammals are as follows:--
Family. Genus. Species.
Suidæ _Sus_ 1 Eastern limit of the genus.
Muridæ _Uromys_ 1 Aru Islands (?)
Dasyuridæ _Phascogale_ 1 Australian genus.
" _Antechinus_ 1 " "
" _Dactylopsila_ 1 To North Australia only.
" _Myoictis_ 1 Aru islands only.
Peramelidæ _Perameles_ 1 New Guinea only.
Macropodidæ _Dendrolagus_ 2 New Guinea only.
" _Dorcopsis_ 2 Papua only.
Phalangistidæ _Cuscus_ 7 Celebes to New Guinea.
" _Belideus_ 1 Australia and Moluccas.
We have here no sign of any approach to the Mammalian fauna of the Oriental
region, for though _Sus_ has appeared, the Muridæ (rats and mice) seem to
be wanting.
In Birds the case is very different, since we at once meet with important
groups, either wholly, or almost peculiar to the Papuan fauna. According to
a careful estimate, embodying the recent discoveries of Meyer and
D'Albertis, there are 350 species of Papuan land-birds comprised in 136
genera. About 300 of the species are absolutely peculiar to the district,
while 39 of the genera are exclusively Papuan or just extend into the
Moluccas, or into North Australia where it closely approaches New Guinea.
In analysing the genera we may set aside 31 as having a wide range, and
being of no significance in distribution; such are most of the birds of
prey, with the genera _Hirundo_, _Caprimulgus_, _Zosterops_; and others
widely spread in both the Oriental and Australian regions, as _Dicæum_,
_Munia_, _Eudynamis_, &c. Of the remainder, as above stated, about 39 are
peculiar to the Papuan fauna, 50 are characteristic Australian genera; 9
are more especially Malayan, and as much Australian as Oriental; while 7
only, appear to be typically Oriental with a discontinuous distribution,
none of them occurring in the Moluccas.
{411}This Papuan fauna is so interesting and remarkable, that it seems
advisable to give lists of these several classes of generic types.
I. Genera occurring in the Papuan Islands which are characteristic of the
Australian region (89). Those marked with an asterisk are exclusively
Papuan.
Sylviidæ _Malurus_, _Gerygone_, _Petroica_, _Orthonyx_.
Certhiidæ _Climacteris_.
Sittidæ _Sittella_.
Oriolidæ _Mimeta_.
Campephagidæ _Graucalus_, _Lalage_.
Dicruridæ *_Chætorhynchus_.
Muscicapidæ *_Peltops_, _Monarcha_, *_Leucophantes_, _Microeca_,
_Sisura_, _Myiagra_, *_Machærirhynchus_,
_Rhipidura_, *_Todopsis_.
Pachycephalidæ _Pachycephala_.
Laniidæ *_Rectes_.
Corvidæ _Cracticus_, *_Gymnocorvus_.
Paradiseidæ *_Paradisea_, *_Manucodia_, *_Astrapia_, *_Parotia_,
*_Lophorina_, *_Diphyllodes_, *_Xanthomelus_,
*_Cicinnurus_, *_Paradigalla_, *_Epimachus_,
*_Drepanornis_, *_Seleucides_, _Ptilorhis_,
_Æluroedus_, *_Amblyornis_.
Meliphagidæ _Myzomela_, _Entomophila_, _Glicyphila_, _Ptilotis_,
*_Melidectes_, *_Melipotes_, *_Melirrhophetes_,
_Anthochæra_, _Philemon_, *_Euthyrhynchus_,
_Melithreptes_.
Nectariniidæ _Chalcostetha_, *_Cosmetira_.
Artamidæ _Artamus_.
Pittidæ *_Melampitta_.
Cuculidæ *_Caliechthrus_.
Alcedinidæ _Alcyone_, *_Syma_, _Dacelo_, *_Tanysiptera_,
*_Melidora_.
Podargidæ _Podargus_, _Ægotheles_.
Caprimulgidæ _Eurostopodus_.
Cacatuidæ _Cacatua_, *_Microglossus_, _Licmetis_, *_Nasiterna_.
Platycercidæ _Aprosmictus_
Palæornithidæ _Tanygnathus_, _Eclectus_, _Geoffroyus_,
*_Cyclopsitta_.
Trichoglossidæ _Trichoglossus_, *_Charmosyna_, _Eos_, _Lorius_.
Nestoridæ *_Dasyptilus_.
Columbidæ _Ptilopus_, _Carpophaga_, _Ianthoenas_,
_Reinwardtoenas_, *_Trugon_, *_Henicophaps_,
_Phlogoenas_, *_Otidiphaps_, *_Goura_.
Megapodiidæ _Talegallus_, _Megapodius_.
Falconidæ *_Henicopernis_.
Casuariidæ _Casuarius_.
The chief points of interest here are the richness and specialization of
the parrots, pigeons, and kingfishers; the wonderful paradise-birds; the
honeysuckers; and some remarkable flycatchers. {412}The most prominent
deficiencies, as compared with Australia, are in Sylviidæ, Timaliidæ,
Ploceidæ, Platycercidæ, and Falconidæ.
II. The genera which are characteristic of the whole Malay Archipelago are
the following (10):--
1. _Erythrura_ (Ploceidæ)
2. _Pitta_ (Pittidæ)
3. _Ceyx_ (Alcedinidæ)
4. _Calao_ (Bucerotidæ)
5. _Dendrochelidon_ (Cypselidæ)
6. _Loriculus_ (Psittacidæ)
7. _Macropygia_ (Columbidæ)
8. _Chalcophaps_ "
9. _Caloenas_ "
10. _Baza_ (Falconidæ)
III. The curious set of genera apparently of Indo-Malayan origin, but
unknown in the Moluccas, are as follows:--
1. _Eupetes_ (Cinclidæ)
2. _Alcippe_ (Timaliidæ)
3. _Pomatorhinus_ "
4. _Arachnothera_ (Nectariniidæ)
5. _Prionochilus_ (Dicæidæ)
6. _Eulabes_ (Sturnidæ)
The above six birds are very important as indicating past changes in the
Austro-Malay Islands, and we must say a few words about each. (1) _Eupetes_
is very remarkable, since the New Guinea birds resemble in all important
characters that which is confined to Malacca and Sumatra. They are probably
the survivors of a once wide-spread Malayan group. (2) _Alcippe_ or
_Drymocataphus_ (for in which genus the birds should be placed is doubtful)
seems another clear case of a typical Indo-Malayan form occurring in New
Guinea and Java, but in no intervening island. (3) _Pomatorhinus_ is a most
characteristic Himalayan and Indo-Malayan genus, occurring again in New
Guinea and also in Australia, but in no intermediate island. The New Guinea
bird seems as nearly related to Oriental as Australian species. (4)
_Arachnothera_ is exactly parallel to _Alcippe_, occurring nowhere east of
Borneo except in New Guinea. (5) _Prionochilus_, a small black bird,
sometimes classed as a distinct genus, but evidently allied to the
_Prionochili_ of the Indo-Malay Islands. (6) _Eulabes_, the genus which
contains the well known Mynahs of India, extends east of Java as far as
Flores, but is not found in Celebes or the Moluccas. The two New Guinea
species are sometimes classed in different genera, but they are undoubtedly
allied to the Mynahs of India and Malaya.
We find then, that while the ornithology of New Guinea is {413}preeminently
Australian in character and possesses many peculiar developments of
Australian types, it has also--as might be expected from its geographical
position, its climate, and its vegetation--received an infusion of Malayan
forms. But while one group of these is spread over the whole Archipelago,
and occasionally beyond it, there is another group which presents the
unusual and interesting feature of discontinuous distribution, jumping over
a thousand miles of island-studded sea from Java and Borneo to New Guinea
itself. It is a parallel case to that of Java in the Oriental region, which
we have already discussed, but the suggested explanation in that case is
more difficult to apply here. The recent soundings by the _Challenger_ show
us, that although the several islands of the Moluccas are surrounded by
water from 1,200 to 2,800 fathoms deep, yet these seas form inclosed basins
with rims not more than from 400 to 900 fathoms deep, suggesting the idea
of great lakes or inland seas which have sunk down bodily with the
surrounding land, or that enormous local and restricted elevations and
subsidences have here occurred. We have also the numerous small islands and
coral banks south of Celebes and eastward towards Timor-Laut and the Aru
Islands, indicating great subsidence; and it is possible that there was an
extension of Papua to the west, approaching sufficiently near to Java to
receive occasional straggling birds of Indo-Malay type, altogether
independent of the Moluccas to the north.
_Bright Colours and Ornamental Plumage of New Guinea Birds._--One of the
most striking features of Papuan ornithology is the large proportion which
the handsome and bright-coloured birds bear to the more obscure species.
That this is really the case has been ascertained by going over my own
collections, made at Aru and New Guinea, and comparing them with my
collection made at Malacca--a district remarkable for the number of
handsome birds it produces. Using, as nearly as possible, the same standard
of beauty, about one-third of the Malacca birds may be classed as
handsome,[14] while in Papua the proportion comes out exactly one-half.
This is due, in part to the great abundance of {414}parrots, cockatoos, and
lories, almost all of which are beautiful; and of pigeons, more than half
of which are very beautiful; as well as to the numerous kingfishers, most
of which are excessively brilliant. Then we have the absence of thrushes,
and the very small numbers of the warblers, shrikes, and Timaliidæ, which
are dull-coloured groups; and, lastly, the presence of numerous gay pittas,
flycatchers, and the unequalled family of paradise-birds. A large number of
birds adorned with metallic plumage is also a marked feature of this fauna,
more than a dozen genera being so distinguished. Among the remarkable forms
are _Peltops_, a flycatcher, long classed as one of the Indo-Malayan
Eurylæmidæ, which it resembles both in bill and coloration;
_Machærirhynchus_, curious little boat-billed flycatchers; and _Todopsis_,
a group of terrestrial flycatchers with the brilliant colours of _Pitta_ or
_Malurus_. The paradise-birds present the most wonderful developments of
plumage and the most gorgeous varieties of colour, to be found among
passerine birds. The great whiskered-swift, the handsomest bird in the
entire family, has its head-quarters here. Among kingfishers the elegant
long-tailed _Tanysipteræ_ are preeminent, whether for singularity or
beauty. Among parrots, New Guinea possesses the great black cockatoo, one
of the largest and most singular birds in the order; _Nasiterna_, the
smallest of known parrots; and _Charmosyna_, perhaps the most elegant.
Lastly, among the pigeons we have the fine crowned-pigeons, the largest and
most remarkable group of the order.
Plate X.
[Illustration]
SCENE IN NEW GUINEA, WITH CHARACTERISTIC ANIMALS.
_Plate X. Illustrating the Ornithology of New Guinea._--The wonderful
ornithological fauna we have just sketched, could only be properly
represented in a series of elaborate coloured plates. We are obliged here
to confine ourselves to representing a few of the more remarkable types of
form, as samples of the great number that adorn this teeming bird-land. The
large central figure is the fine twelve-wired paradise-bird (_Seleucides
albus_), one of the most beautiful and remarkable of the family. Its
general plumage appears, at first sight, to be velvety black; but on closer
examination, and by holding the bird in various lights, it is found that
every part of it glows with the most exquisite metallic tints--rich bronze,
intense violet, and, on the {415}edges of the breast-feathers, brilliant
green. An immense tuft of dense plumes of a fine orange-buff colour,
springs from each side of the body, and six of these on each side terminate
in a black curled rachis or shaft, which form a perfectly unique adornment
to this lovely bird. To appreciate this wonderful family (of which no good
mounted collection exists) the reader should examine the series of plates
in Mr. Elliot's great work on the Paradiseidæ, where every species is
figured of the size of life, and with a perfection of colouring that leaves
little to be desired.
Below the _Seleucides_ is one of the elegant racquet-tailed king-hunters
(_Tanysiptera galatea_) whose plumage of vivid blue and white, and
coral-red bill, combined with the long spatulate tail, renders this bird
one of the most attractive of the interesting family of kingfishers. On a
high branch is seated the little Papuan parroquet (_Charmosyna papuensis_),
one of the Trichoglossidæ, or brush-tongued parrots,--richly adorned in red
and yellow plumage, and with an unusually long and slender tail. On the
ground is the well-known crowned pigeon (_Goura coronata_), a genus which
is wholly confined to New Guinea and a few of the adjacent islands. One of
the very few Papuan mammals, a tree-kangaroo (_Dendrolagus inustus_), is
seated on a high branch. It is interesting, as an arboreal modification of
a family which in Australia is purely terrestrial; and as showing how very
little alteration of form or structure is needed to adapt an animal to such
a different mode of life.
_Reptiles and Amphibia._--Of these classes comparatively little is at
present known, but there is evidence that the same intermixture of Oriental
and Australian forms that occurs in birds and insects, is also found here.
Dr. A. B. Meyer, the translator of this work into German, and well known
for his valuable discoveries in New Guinea, has kindly furnished me with a
manuscript list of Papuan reptiles, from which most of the information I am
able to give is derived.
Of Snakes, 24 genera, are known, belonging to 11 families. Six of the
genera are Oriental,--_Calamaria_, _Cerberus_, _Chrysopelea_, _Lycodon_,
_Chersydrus_, and _Ophiophagus_. Four are Australian,--_Morelia_,
{416}_Liasis_, _Diemenia_, and _Acanthophis_; while four others are more
especially Papuan,--_Dibamus_ (Typhlopidæ), _Brachyorros_--a sub-genus of
the wide-spread _Rhabdosoma_ (Calamariidæ), found also in Timor; _Nardoa_
and _Enygrus_ (Pythonidæ), ranging from the Moluccas to the Fiji Islands.
The rest are either common to the Oriental and Australian regions or of
wide range.
Of Lizards also, 24 genera are recorded, belonging to 5 families. Three
only are peculiarly Oriental,--_Eumeces_, _Tiaris_, and _Nycteridium_; but
another, _Gonyocephalus_, is Malayan, ranging from Java and Borneo to the
Pelew Islands. Three are Australian,--_Cyclodus_, _Heteropus_, and
_Gehyra_; while six are especially Papuan,--_Keneuxia_ (extending to the
Philippines), _Elania_, _Carlia_ (to North Australia), _Lipinia_ (to the
Philippine Islands), and _Tribolonotus_,--all belonging to the Scincidæ;
and _Arua_ belonging to the Agamidæ. We must add _Cryptoblepharus_, which
is confined to the Australian region, except a species in Mauritius. The
other genera have a wider distribution.
The preponderant Oriental element in the snakes as compared with the
lizards, is suggestive of the dispersal of the former being dependent on
floating trees, or even on native canoes, which for an unknown period have
traversed these seas, and in which various species of snakes often secrete
themselves. This seems the more probable, as snakes are usually more
restricted in their range than lizards, and exhibit less numerous examples
of widespread genera and species. The other orders of reptiles present no
features of interest.
Of Amphibia only 8 genera are known, belonging to 6 families. _Rana_,
_Hylarana_, and _Hyla_ are wide-spread genera, the former being, however,
absent from Australia. _Hyperolius_, _Pelodryas_, _Litoria_, and
_Asterophrys_ are Australian; while _Platymantis_ is Polynesian, with a
species in the Philippine Islands. Hence it appears that the amphibia, so
far as yet known, exhibit no Oriental affinity; and this is a very
suggestive fact. We have seen (p. 29) that salt water is almost a complete
barrier to the dispersal of these creatures; so that the wholly Australian
character of the Papuan batrachia is what we might expect, if, as here
advocated, no actual land connection between {417}the Oriental and
Australian regions, has probably occurred during the entire Tertiary and
Post-tertiary periods.
_Insects._--The general character of the Papuan insects has been
sufficiently indicated in our sketch of the Entomology of the region. We
will here only add, that the metallic lustre so prevalent among the birds,
is also apparent in such insects as _Sphingnotus mirabilis_, a most
brilliant metallic Longicorn; _Lomaptera wallacei_ and _Anacamptorhina
fulgida_, Cetonii of intense lustre; _Calodema wallacei_ among the
Buprestidæ; and the elegant blue _Eupholi_ among the weevils. Even among
moths we have _Cocytia durvillii_, remarkable for its brilliant metallic
colours.
_The Moluccas._--The islands of Gilolo, Bouru, and Ceram, with several
smaller islands adjacent, together with Sanguir, and perhaps Tulour or
Salibaboo to the north-west, and the islands from Ke to Timor-Laut to the
south-east, form the group of the Moluccas or Spice-Islands, remarkable for
the luxuriance of their vegetation and the extreme beauty of their birds
and insects. Their Mammalia are of Papuan character, with some foreign
intermixture. Two genera of the New Guinea marsupials, _Belideus_ and
_Cuscus_, abound; and we have also the wide-spread _Sus_. But besides
these, we find no less than five genera of placental Mammals quite foreign
to the Papuan or Australian faunas. These are 1. _Cynopithecus nigrescens_,
found only in the small island of Batchian, and probably introduced from
Celebes, where the same ape occurs. 2. _Viverra tangalunga_, a common
Indo-Malayan species of civet, probably introduced. 3. _Cervus
hippelaphus_, var. _Moluccensis_, a deer abundant in all the islands, very
close to a Javan species and almost certainly introduced by man, perhaps
very long ago. 4. _Babirusa alfurus_, the babirusa, found only in the
island of Bouru, and perhaps originally introduced from Celebes. 5. _Sorex_
sp., small shrews. With the exception of the last, _all_ these species are
animals habitually domesticated and kept in confinement by the Malays; and
when we consider that none of the smaller Mammalia of Java and Borneo,
numbering at least fifty different species, are found {418}in any of the
Moluccas, we can hardly suppose that such large animals as the deer and
ape, could have reached them by natural means. There is every reason to
believe, therefore, that the indigenous Mammalia of the Moluccas are wholly
of Papuan stock, and very limited in number.
The birds are much more varied and interesting. About 200 species of
land-birds are now known, belonging to 85 genera. Of the species about 15
are Indo-Malayan, 32 Papuan, and about 140 peculiar. Of the genera only two
are peculiar,--_Semioptera_, a paradise bird, and _Lycocorax_, a singular
form of Corvidæ; but there is also a peculiar rail-like wader,
_Habroptila_. One genus, _Basilornis_, is found only in Ceram and Celebes;
another, _Scythrops_, is Australian, and perhaps a migrant. About 30 genera
are characteristic Papuan types, and 37 others, of more or less wide range,
are found in New Guinea and were therefore probably derived thence. There
remains a group of birds which are not found in New Guinea, and are either
Palæarctic or Oriental. These are 13 in number as follows:--
1. Monticola.
2. Acrocephalus.
3. Cisticola.
4. Hypolais.
5. Criniger.
6. Butalis.
7. Budytes.
8. Corydalla.
9. Hydrornis.
10. Batrachostomus.
11. Loriculus.
12. Treron.
13. Neopus.
Of these the _Monticola_, found only in Gilolo, appears to be a straggler
or migrant from the Philippine islands. _Acrocephalus_, of which four
species occur, is a wide-spread group; one of the Moluccan birds is an
Australian and another a North-Asian species, which perhaps indicates that
there has long been some migration southward from island to island, across
the Moluccas. _Cisticola_ is a genus of very wide range, extending to
Australia. _Hypolais_ is probably a modified form of a Chinese or Javanese
species. _Criniger_ is a pure Indo-Malay form, represented here by three
fine species. _Butalis_ is a Chinese species, no doubt straggling
southward. _Budytes_ and _Corydalla_ are widespread Oriental and Palæarctic
species or slight modifications of them. _Hydrornis_ is a Malayan form of
Pittidæ. _Batrachostomus_ is a distinct representative of a purely
Indo-Malay genus. {419}_Loriculus_ is Malayan, and especially Philippine,
but it reaches as far as Mysol. _Treron_ is here at its eastern limit, and
is represented in Bouru and Ceram by one of the most beautiful species.
_Neopus_, a Malayan eagle, is said to occur in the Moluccas. We find then
only three characteristic Indo-Malay types in the Moluccas,--_Criniger_,
_Batrachostomus_, and _Treron_. All are represented by distinct and well
marked species, indicating a somewhat remote period since their ancestors
entered the district, but all are birds of considerable powers of flight,
so that a very little extension of the islands in a south-westerly
direction would afford the means of transmission, but this could not well
have been by way of Celebes, because the two former genera are unknown in
that island.
It is evident, therefore, that the Moluccas are wholly Papuan in their
zoology; yet they are no less clearly derivative, and must have obtained
their original immigrants under conditions that rendered a full
representation of the fauna impossible. Such remarkable and dominant types
as the eleven genera of Paradiseidæ, with _Cracticus_, _Rectes_,
_Todopsis_, _Machærirhynchus_, _Gerygone_, _Dacelo_, _Podargus_,
_Cyclopsitta_, _Microglossum_, _Nasiterna_, _Chalcopsitta_, and
_Goura_,--all characteristic Papuan groups, found in almost all the islands
and most of them very abundant, are yet totally absent from the Moluccas.
Taking this, in conjunction with the absence of the two genera of Papuan
kangaroos and the other smaller groups of marsupials, and we must be
convinced that the Moluccas cannot be mere fragments of the old Papuan
land, or they would certainly, in some one or other of their large and
fertile islands, have preserved a more complete representation of the
parent fauna. Most of the Moluccan birds are very distinct from the allied
species of New Guinea; and this would imply that the entrance of the
original forms took place at a remote period. The two peculiar genera with
clearly Papuan affinities, show the same thing. The cassowary, found only
in the large island of Ceram and distinct from any Papuan species, would
however seem to have required a land connection for its introduction,
almost as much as any of the larger mammalia.
{420}Taking all the facts into consideration, I would suggest as the most
probable explanation, that if the Moluccas ever formed part of the main
Papuan land, they were separated at an early date, and subsequently so
greatly submerged as to destroy a large proportion of their fauna. They
have since risen, and have probably been larger than at present, and rather
more closely approximated to the parent land, whence they received a
considerable immigration of such animals as were adapted to cross narrow
seas. This gave them several Papuan forms, but still left them without a
number of the types more especially confined to the forest depths, or
powerful enough to combat the gales which often blow weaker flyers out to
sea. Most of the birds whose absence from the Moluccas is so conspicuous
belong to one or other of these classes.
Among the most characteristic birds of the Moluccas are the handsome
crimson lories of the genera _Lorius_ and _Eos_. These are found in every
island (but not in Celebes or the Timor group); and a fine species of
_Eos_, peculiar to the small islands of Siau and Sanguir, just north of
Celebes, obliges us to place these with the Moluccas instead of with the
former island, to which they seem most naturally to belong. The crimson
parrots of the genus _Eclectus_ are almost equally characteristic of the
Moluccas, and add greatly to the brilliancy of the ornithology of these
favoured islands.
_Reptiles._--The Reptiles, so far as known, appear to agree in their
distribution with the other vertebrates. In some small collections from
Ceram there were no less than six of the genera peculiar to the Australian
region, and which were before only known from Australia itself. These are,
of snakes, _Liasis_ and _Enygrus_, genera of Pythonidæ; with _Diemenia_ and
_Acanthophis_ (Elapidæ); of lizards, _Cyclodus_, a genus of Scincidæ; and
of Amphibia, a tree-frog of the genus _Pelodryas_.
_Insects--Peculiarities of the Moluccan Fauna._--In insects the Moluccas
are hardly, if at all, inferior to New Guinea itself. The islands abound in
grand _Papilios_ of the largest size and extreme beauty; and it is a very
remarkable fact, that when the closely-allied species of the Moluccas and
New Guinea are compared, {421}the former are almost always the largest. As
examples may be mentioned, _Ornithoptera priamus_ and _O. helena_ of the
Moluccas, both larger than the varieties (or species) of Papua; _Papilio
ulysses_ and _deiphobus_ of Amboyna, usually larger than their allies in
New Guinea; _Hestia idea_, the largest species of the genus; _Diadema
pandarus_ and _Charaxes euryalus_, both larger than any other species of
the same genera in the whole archipelago. It is to be noted also, that in
the Moluccas, the very largest specimens or races seem always to come from
the small island of Amboyna; even those of Ceram, the much larger island to
which it is a satellite, being almost always of less dimensions. Among
Coleoptera, the Moluccas produce _Euchirus longimanus_, one of the largest
and most remarkable of the Lamellicornes; _Sphingnotus dunningi_, the
largest of the Austro-Malayan Tmesisterninæ; a _Sphenura_, the largest and
handsomest of an extensive genus; an unusually large _Schizorhina_
(Cetoniidæ); and some of the most remarkable and longest-horned
Anthotribidæ. Even in birds the same law may be seen at work,--in the
_Tanysiptera nais_ of Ceram, which has a larger tail than any other in the
genus; in _Centropus goliath_ of Gilolo, being the largest and
longest-tailed species; in _Hydrornis maximus_ of Gilolo, the largest and
perhaps the most elegantly and conspicuously coloured of all the Pittidæ;
in _Platycercus amboinensis_, being pre-eminent in its ample blue tail; in
the two Moluccan lories and _Eos rubra_, being more conspicuously red than
the allied New Guinea species; and in _Megapodius wallacei_ of Bouru, being
the only species of the genus conspicuously marked and banded.
All these examples, of larger size, of longer tails or other appendages,
and of more conspicuous colouring, are probably indications of a less
severe struggle for existence in these islands than in the larger tract of
New Guinea, with a more abundant and more varied fauna; and this may apply
even to the smaller islands, as compared with the larger in the immediate
vicinity. The limited number of forms in the small islands compared with a
similar area in the parent land, implies, perhaps, less competition and
less danger; and thus allows, where all other conditions are favourable, an
unchecked and continuous {422}development in size, form, and colour, until
they become positively injurious. This law may not improbably apply to the
New Guinea fauna itself, as compared with that of Borneo or any other
similar country; and some of its peculiarities (such as its wonderful
paradise-birds) may be due to long isolation, and consequent freedom from
the influence of any competing forms. The difference between the very sober
colours of the Coleoptera, and in a less degree of the birds, of Borneo, as
compared with their brilliancy in New Guinea, always struck me most
forcibly, and was long without any, even conjectural, explanation. It is
not the place here to go further into this most curious and interesting
subject. The reader who wishes for additional facts to aid him in forming
an opinion, should consult Mr. Darwin's _Descent of Man_, chapters x. to
xv.; and my own _Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection_,
chapters iii. and iv.
_Timor Group._--_Mammalia._--In the group of islands between Java and
Australia, from Lombok to Timor inclusive, we find a set of mammals similar
to those of the Moluccas, but some of them different species. A wide-spread
species of _Cuscus_ represents the Papuan element. A _Sorex_ and a peculiar
species of wild pig, we may also accept as indigenous. Three others have
almost certainly been introduced. These are, (1.) _Macacus cynomolgus_, the
very commonest Malay monkey, which may have crossed the narrow straits from
island to island between Java and Timor, though it seems much more probable
that it was introduced by Malays, who constantly capture and rear the young
of this species. (2.) _Cervus timoriensis_, a deer, said to be a distinct
species, inhabits Timor, but it is probably only a variety of the _Cervus
hippelaphus_ of Java. This animal is, however, much more likely to have
crossed the sea than the monkey. (3.) _Paradoxurus fasciatus_, takes the
place of _Viverra tangalunga_ in the Moluccas, both common and wide-spread
civets which are often kept in confinement by the Malays. The _Felis
megalotis_, long supposed to be a native of Timor, has been ascertained by
Mr. Elliot to belong to a different country altogether.
_Birds._--The birds are much more interesting, since they are
{423}sufficiently numerous to allow us to determine their relations, and
trace their origin, with unusual precision. There are 96 genera and 160
species of land-birds known to inhabit this group of islands; and on a
careful analysis, they are found to be almost equally related to the
Australian and Oriental regions, 30 genera being distinctly traceable to
the former, and the same number to the latter. Their connection with the
Moluccas is shown by the presence of the genera _Mimeta_, _Geoffroyus_,
_Cacatua_, _Ptilopus_, and _Ianthænas_, together with _Megapodius_ and
_Cerchneis_ represented by Moluccan species. _Turacoena_ shows a connection
with Celebes, and _Scops_ is represented by a Celebesian species. The
connection with Australia is shown by the genera _Sphæcothera_, _Gerygone_,
_Myiagra_, _Pardalotus_, _Gliciphila_, _Amadina_, and _Aprosmictus_; while
_Milvus_, _Hypotriorchis_, _Eudynamis_, and _Eurystomus_, are represented
by Australian species. Other genera confined to or characteristic of the
Australian region, are _Rhipidura_, _Monarcha_, _Artamus_, _Campephaga_,
_Pachycephala_, _Philemon_, _Ptilotis_, and _Myzomela_.
We now come to the Indo-Malay or Javan element represented by the following
genera:
1. Turdus (T.)
2. Geocichla (T.)
3. Zoothera.
4. Megalurus (T.)
5. Orthotomus.
6. Pratincola (T.)
7. Oreicola (T.)
8. Drymocataphus (T.)
9. Parus.
10. Pycnonotus.
11. Oriolus.
12. Pericrocotus.
13. Cyornis (T.)
14. Hypothymis.
15. Tchitrea.
16. Lanius (T.)
17. Anthreptes.
18. Eulabes.
19. Estrilda (T.)
20. Erythrura (T.)
21. Yungipicus.
22. Merops.
23. Pelargopsis.
24. Ceyx.
25. Loriculus.
26. Treron (T.)
27. Iotreron (s.g. of _Ptilopus_).
28. Chalcophaps (T.)
29. Gallus (T.)
30. Strix.
Such genera as _Merops_ and _Strix_, which are as much Australian as
Oriental, are inserted here because they are represented by Javan species.
The list is considerably swelled by genera which have reached Lombok across
the narrow strait from Baly, but have passed no further. Such are
_Zoothera_, _Orthotomus_, _Pycnonotus_, _Pericrocotus_ and _Strix_. A much
larger number (12) stop short at Flores, leaving only 13, indicated in the
list by (T) after their names, which reach Timor. It is evident, therefore,
that these islands have been stocked from three chief sources,--the
{424}Moluccas (with New Guinea and Celebes,) Australia, and Java. The
Moluccan forms may well have arrived as stragglers from island to island,
aided by whatever facilities have been afforded by lands now submerged.
Most of the remainder have been derived either from Australia or from Java;
and as their relations to these islands are very interesting, they must be
discussed with some detail.
_Origin of the Timorese Fauna._--We must first note, that 80 species, or
exactly one-half of the land-birds of the islands, are peculiar and mostly
very distinct, intimating that the immigration commenced long enough back
to allow of much specific modification. There is also one peculiar genus of
kingfishers, _Caridonax_, found only in Lombok and Flores, and more allied
to Australian than to Oriental types. The fine white-banded pigeons (s. g.
_Leucotreron_) are also almost peculiar; one other less typical species
only being known, a native of N. Celebes. In order to compare the species
with regard to their origin, we must first take away those of wide
distribution from which no special indications can be obtained. In this
case 49 of the land-birds must be deducted, leaving 111 species which
afford good materials for comparison. These, when traced to their origin,
show that 62 came from some part of the Australian region, 49 from Java or
the Oriental region. But if we divide them into two groups, the one
containing the species identical with those of the Australian or Oriental
regions, the other containing _allied_ or _representative_ species peculiar
to the islands, we have the following result:
Species common to the Timorese Islands and the Oriental Region 30
Peculiar Timorese species allied to those of the Oriental Region 19
--
Total 49
Species common to the Timorese Islands and the Australian Region 18
Peculiar Timorese species allied to those of the Australian Region 44
--
Total 62
This table is very important, as indicating that the connection {425}with
Australia was probably earlier than that with Java; since the majority of
the Australian species have become modified, while the majority of the
Oriental species have remained unchanged. This is due, no doubt, in part to
the continued immigration of fresh individuals from Java, after that from
Australia, the Moluccas and New Guinea had almost wholly ceased. We must
also notice the very small proportion of the genera, either of Australia or
Java, that have found their way into these islands, many of the largest and
most wide-spread groups in both countries being altogether absent. Taking
these facts into consideration, it is pretty clear that there has been no
close and long-continued approximation of these islands to any part of the
Australian region; and it is also probable that they were fairly stocked
with such Australian groups as they possess before the immigration from
Java commenced, or a larger number of characteristic Oriental forms would
have been able to have established themselves.
On looking at our map, we find that a shallow submerged bank extends from
Australia to within about twenty miles of the coast of Timor; and this is
probably an indication that the two countries were once only so far apart.
This would have allowed the purely Australian types to enter, as they are
not numerous; there being about 6 Australian species, and 10 or 12
representatives of Australian species, in Timor. All the rest may have been
derived from the Moluccas or New Guinea, being mostly wide-spread genera of
the Australian region; and the extension of Papua in a south-west direction
towards Java (which was suggested as a means of providing New Guinea with
peculiar Indo-Malay types not found in any other part of the region) may
have probably served to supply Timor and Flores with the mass of their
Austro-Malayan genera across a narrow strait or arm of the sea. Lombok,
Baly, and Sumbawa were probably not then in existence, or nothing more than
small volcanic cones rising out of the sea, thus leaving a distance of 300
miles between Flores and Java. Subsequently they grew into islands, which
offered an easy passage for a number of Indo-Malay genera into such
scantily stocked territories as Flores and Timor. The {426}north coast of
Australia then sank, cutting off the supply from that country; and this
left the Timorese group in the position it now occupies.
The reptiles and fishes of this group are too little known to enable us to
make any useful comparison.
_Insects._--The insects, though not numerous, present many fine species,
some quite unlike any others in the Archipelago. Such are--_Papilio liris_,
_Pieris læta_, _Cirrochroa lamarckii_ and _C. leschenaultii_ among
butterflies. The Coleoptera are comparatively little known, but in the
insects generally the Indo-Malay element predominates. This may have arisen
from the peculiar vegetation and arid climate not being suitable to the
Papuan insects. Why Australian forms did not establish themselves we cannot
conjecture; but the field appears to have been open to immigrants from
Java, the climate and vegetation of which island at its eastern extremity
approximates to that of the Timorese group. The insects are, however, so
peculiarly modified as to imply a very great antiquity, and this is also
indicated by a group of Sylviine birds here classed under _Oreicola_, but
some of which probably form distinct genera. There may, perhaps, have been
an earlier and a later approximation to Java, which, with the other changes
indicated, would account for most of the facts presented by the fauna of
these islands. One deduction is, at all events, clear: the extreme paucity
of indigenous mammals along with the absence of so many groups of birds,
renders it certain that the Timorese islands did not derive their animal
life by means of an actual union with any of the large islands either of
the Australian or the Oriental regions.
_Celebes Group._--We now come to the Island of Celebes, in many respects
the most remarkable and interesting in the whole region, or perhaps on the
globe, since no other island seems to present so many curious problems for
solution. We shall therefore give a somewhat full account of its peculiar
fauna, and endeavour to elucidate some of the causes to which its
zoological isolation may be attributed.
_Mammalia._--The following is the list of the mammalia of {427}Celebes as
far as at present known, though many small species may yet be discovered.
1. Cynopithecus nigrescens.
2. Tarsius spectrum.
3. Viverra tangalunga.
4. Cervus hippelaphus.
5. Anoa depressicornis.
6. Sus celebensis.
7. Barbirusa alfurus.
8. Sciurus (5 peculiar sp.)
9. Mus (2 peculiar sp.)
10. Cuscus (2 peculiar sp.)
Also 7 species of bats, of which 5 are peculiar.
The first--a large black ape--is itself an anomaly, since it is not closely
allied to any other form of quadrumana. Its flat projecting muzzle, large
superciliary crests and maxillary ridges, with the form and appearance of
its teeth, separate it altogether from the genus _Macacus_, as represented
in the Indo-Malay islands, and ally it closely to the baboons of
Africa.[15] We have already seen reason to suppose that it has been carried
to Batchian, and there is some doubt about the allied species or variety
(_C. niger_) of the Philippines being really indigenous there; in which
case this interesting form will remain absolutely confined to Celebes. (2.)
The tarsier is a truly Malayan species, but it is said to occur in a small
island at the northern extremity of Celebes and on some of the Philippine
Islands. It might possibly have been introduced there. (3) and (4)--a civet
and a deer--are, almost certainly, as in the Moluccas, introduced species.
(5.) _Anoa depressicornis._ This is one of the peculiar Celebesian types; a
small straight-horned wild-bull, anatomically allied to the buffaloes, and
somewhat resembling the bovine antelopes of Africa, but having no near
allies in the Oriental region. (6.) _Sus Celebensis_; a peculiar species of
wild-pig. (7.) _Babirusa alfurus_; another remarkable type, having no near
allies. It differs in its dentition from the typical Suidæ, and seems to
approach the African Phacochoeridæ, The manner in which the canines of the
upper jaw are reversed, and grow directly upwards in a spiral curve over
the eyes, is unique among mammalia. (8.) Five squirrels inhabit Celebes,
and all are peculiar species. (9.) These are forest rats of the sub-genus
_Gymnomys_, allied to Australian species. 10. _Cuscus._ This typical
{428}Australian form is represented in Celebes by two peculiar species.
Leaving out the Indo-Malay _species_, which may probably have been
introduced by man, and are at all events comparatively recent immigrants,
and the wild pig, a genus which ranges over the whole archipelago and which
has therefore little significance, we find two genera which have come from
the Australian side,--_Cuscus_ and _Mus_; and four from the Oriental
side,--_Cynopithecus_, _Anoa_, _Babirusa_, and _Sciurus_. But _Sciurus_
alone corresponds to _Cuscus_, as a genus still inhabiting the adjacent
islands; the other three being not only peculiar to Celebes, but incapable
of being affiliated to any specially Oriental group. We seem, then, to have
indications of two distinct periods; one very ancient, when the ancestors
of the three peculiar genera roamed over some unknown continent of which
Celebes formed, perhaps, an outlying portion;--another more recent, when
from one side there entered _Sciurus_, and from the other _Cuscus_. But we
must remember that the Moluccas to the east, possess scarcely any
indigenous mammals except _Cuscus_; whereas Borneo and Java on the west,
have nearly 50 distinct genera. It is evident then, that the facilities for
immigration must have been much less with the Oriental than with the
Australian region, and we may be pretty certain that at this later period
there was no land connection with the Indo-Malay islands, or some other
animals than squirrels would certainly have entered. Let us now see what
light is thrown upon the subject by the birds.
_Birds._--The total number of birds known to inhabit Celebes is 205,
belonging to about 150 genera. We may leave out of consideration the wading
and aquatic birds, most of which are wide-ranging species. There remain 123
genera and 152 species of land-birds, of which 9 genera and 66 species are
absolutely confined to the island, while 20 more are found also in the Sula
or Sanguir Islands, so that we may take 86 to be the number of peculiar
Celebes species. Lord Walden, from whose excellent paper on the birds of
Celebes (_Trans. Zool. Soc._ vol. viii. p. 23) most of these figures are
obtained, estimates, that of the species which are not peculiar to Celebes,
55 are of Oriental and 22 of {429}Australian origin, the remainder being
common to both regions. This shows a preponderant recent immigration from
the West and North, which is not to be wondered at when we look at the long
coast line of Java, Borneo, and the Philippine islands, with an abundant
and varied bird population, on the one side, and the small scattered
islands of the Moluccas, with a comparatively scanty bird-fauna, on the
other.
But, adopting the method here usually followed, let us look at the
relations of the _genera_ found in Celebes, omitting for the present those
which are peculiar to it. I divide these genera into two series:--those
which are found in Borneo or Java but not in the Moluccas, and those which
inhabit the Moluccas and not Borneo or Java; these being the respective
sources from which, _primâ facie_, the species of these genera must have
been derived. Genera which range widely into both these districts are
rejected, as teaching us nothing of the origin of the Celebesian fauna. In
a few cases, sub-genera which show a decided eastern or western origin, are
given.
GENERA DERIVED FROM BORNEO AND JAVA.
1. Geocichla.
2. Pratincola (sp.)
3. Trichastoma.
4. Oriolus (sp.)
5. Cyornis.
6. Hypothymis.
7. Hylocharis.
8. Æthopyga.
9. Nectarophila.
10. Anthreptes (sp.)
11. Munia (sp.)
12. Acridotheres.
13. Yungipicus.
14. Mulleripicus.
15. Rhamphococcyx.
16. Hierococcyx.
17. Hydrocissa.
18. Cranorrhinus.
19. Lyncornis.
20. Treron (sp.)
21. Gallus (sp.)
22. Spilornis.
23. Butastur.
24. Pernis.
GENERA DERIVED FROM THE MOLUCCAS OR TIMOR.
1. Graucalus (sp.)
2. Chalcostetha.
3. Myzomela.
4. Munia (sp.)
5. Cacatua (sp.)
6. Tanygnathus.
7. Trichoglossus.
8. Scythrops (sp.)
9. Turacoena.
10. Reinwardtoenas (sp.)
11. Myristicivora (s. g.)
12. Ducula (s. g.)
13. Zonoenas (s. g.)
14. Lamproteron (s. g.)
15. Megapodius.
These tables show a decided preponderance of Oriental over Australian
forms. But we must remember that the immediately adjacent lands from whence
the supply was derived, is {430}very much richer in the one case than in
the other. The 24 genera derived from Borneo and Java are only about _one
fourth_ of the characteristic genera of those islands; while the 15
Moluccan and Timorese genera are fully _one third_ of their characteristic
types. The _proportion_ derived from the Australian, is greater than that
derived from the Oriental side.
We shall exhibit this perhaps more clearly, by giving a list of the
important groups of each set of islands which are absent from Celebes.
Important Families of Java and Borneo absent from Celebes.
1. Eurylæmidæ.
2. Timaliidæ.
3. Phyllornithidæ.
4. Pycnonotidæ
5. Laniidæ.
6. Megalæmidæ.
7. Trogonidæ.
8. Phasianidæ.
Important Families of the Moluccas absent from Celebes.
1. Meliphagidæ.
Additional important genera of Java or Borneo absent from Celebes.
1. Orthotomus.
2. Copsychus.
3. Enicurus.
4. Tchitrea.
5. Pericrocotus.
6. Irena.
7. Platylophus.
8. Dendrocitta.
9. Eulabes.
10. Hemicercus.
11. Chrysocolaptes.
12. Tiga.
13. Micropternus.
14. Batrachostomus.
15. Palæornis.
16. Rollulus.
Important genera of the Moluccas absent from Celebes.
1. Mimeta.
2. Monarcha.
3. Rhipidura.
4. Pachycephala.
5. Lycocorax.
6. Alcyone.
7. Tanysiptera.
8. Geoffroyus.
9. Eclectus.
10. Platycercus.
11. Eos.
12. Lorius.
If we reckon the absent families to be each represented by only two
important genera, we shall find the deficiency on the Oriental side much
the greatest; yet those on the side of the Moluccas are sufficiently
remarkable. The Meliphagidæ are not indeed absolutely wanting, since a
_Myzomela_ has now been found in Celebes; but all its larger and more
powerful forms which range over almost the entire region, are absent. This
may be balanced by the absence of the excessively abundant Timaliidæ of the
Indo-Malay islands, which are represented by {431}only a single species;
and by the powerful Phasianidæ, represented only by the common Malay jungle
fowl, perhaps introduced. The entire absence of Pycnonotidæ is a very
anomalous fact, since one of the largest genera, _Criniger_, is well
represented in several islands of the Moluccas, and one has even been found
in the Togian islands in the great northern inlet of Celebes; but yet it
passes over Celebes itself. _Ceyx_, a genus of small kingfishers, is a
parallel case, since it is found everywhere from India to New Guinea,
leaving out only Celebes; but this comes among those curiosities of the
Celebesian fauna which we shall notice further on. In the list of genera
derived from Borneo or Java, no less than 6 are represented by identical
species (indicated by sp. after the name); while in the Moluccan list 5 are
thus identical. These must be taken to indicate, either that the genus is a
recent introduction, or that stragglers still occasionally enter, crossing
the breed, and thus preventing specific modification. In either case they
depend on the existing state of things, and throw no light on the different
distribution of land and sea which aided or checked migration in former
times; and they therefore to some extent diminish the weight of the
Indo-Malay affinity, as measured by the relations of the peculiar species
of Celebes.
From our examination of the evidence thus far,--that is, taking account
firstly, of the _species_, and, secondly, of the _genera_, which are common
to Celebes and the groups of islands between which it is situated, we must
admit that the connexion seems rather with the Oriental than with the
Australian region; but when we take into account the _proportion_ of the
genera and species present, to those which are absent, and giving some
weight to the greater extent of coast line on the Indo-Malay side, we seem
justified in stating that the Austro-Malay element is rather the most fully
represented. This result applies both to birds and mammals; and it leads us
to the belief, that during the epoch of existing species and genera,
Celebes has never been united with any extensive tract of land either on
the Indo-Malay or Austro-Malay side, but has received immigrants from both
during a very long period, the facilities for immigration having been
rather the {432}greatest on the Austro-Malay or Australian side. We have
now to consider what further light can be thrown on the subject by the
consideration of the _peculiar genera_ of Celebes, and of those curiosities
or anomalies of distribution to which we have referred.
Nine genera of birds are altogether peculiar to Celebes; three more are
found only in one other island, and seem to be typically Celebesian; while
one is found in the Sula islands (which belongs to the Celebes group) and
probably exists in Celebes also. The following is a list of these 13
genera:
1. _Artamides_ (Campephagidæ)
2. _Streptocitta_ (Corvidæ)
3. _Charitornis_ "
4. _Gazzola_, (s. g.) "
5. _Basilornis_ (Sturnidæ)
6. _Enodes_ "
7. _Scissirostrum_ "
8. _Monachalcyon_ (Alcedinidæ)
9. _Cittura_ "
10. _Ceycopsis_ "
11. _Meropogon_ (Meropidæ)
12. _Prioniturus_ (Psittacidæ)
13. _Megacephalon_ (Megapodiidæ)
Of the above, _Artamides_, _Monachalcyon_, _Cittura_, and _Megacephalon_,
are modifications of types characteristic of the Australian region. All are
peculiar to Celebes except _Cittura_, found also in the Sanguir islands to
the northward, but which seems to belong to the Moluccan group.
_Streptocitta_, _Charitornis_, and _Gazzola_, are peculiar types of
Corvidæ; the two former allied to the magpies, the latter to the jackdaws.
_Charitornis_ is known only from the Sula islands east of Celebes, and is
closely related to _Streptocitta_. There is nothing comparable to these
three groups in any of the Malay islands, and they seem to have relations
rather with the Corvidæ of the old-world northern continent. _Basilornis_,
_Enodes_, and _Scissirostrum_, are remarkable forms of Sturnidæ.
_Basilornis_ has a beautiful compressed crest, which in the allied species
found in Ceram is elongated behind. _Enodes_ has remarkable red
superciliary streaks, but seems allied to _Calornis_. _Scissirostrum_ seems
also allied to _Calornis_ in general structure, but has a very peculiarly
formed bill and nostrils. We can hardly say whether these three forms show
more affinity to Oriental or to Australian types, but they add to the
weight of evidence as to the great antiquity and isolation of the
Celebesian fauna. _Scissirostrum_ has been classed with _Euryceros_, a
{433}Madagascar bird, and with _Buphaga_, an African genus; but the
peculiar beak and nostrils approximate more to _Cracticus_ and its allies,
of the Australian region, which should probably form a distinct family.
_Ceycopsis_ is undoubtedly intermediate between the Malayan _Ceyx_ and the
African _Ispidina_, and is therefore especially interesting. _Meropogon_ is
a remarkable form of bee-eater, allied to the Indo-Malayan _Nyctiornis_.
_Prioniturus_ (the raquet-tailed parrots) of which two species inhabit
Celebes, and one the Philippines, appears to be allied to the
Austro-Malayan _Geoffroyus_.
We must finally notice a few genera found in Celebes, whose nearest allies
are not in the surrounding islands, and which thus afford illustrations of
discontinuous distribution. The most remarkable, perhaps, is _Coracias_, of
which a fine species inhabits Celebes; while the genus is quite unknown in
the Indo-Malay sub-region, and does not appear again till we reach Burmah
and India; and the species has no closer affinity for Indian than for
African forms. _Myialestes_, a small yellow flycatcher, is another exmple;
its nearest ally (_M. cinereocapilla_) being a common Indian bird, but
unknown in the Malay islands. The Celebesian bird described by me as
_Prionochilus aureolimbatus_, is probably a third case of discontinuous
distribution, if (as a more careful examination seems to show) it is not a
_Prionochilus_, but congeneric with _Pachyglossa_, a bird only found in the
Himalayas. The fine pigeon, _Carpophaga forsteni_, belongs to a group found
in the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand; but the Celebes species is
very distinct from all the others, and seems, if anything, more allied to
that of New Zealand.
The Sula islands (Sula-mangola, Sula-taliabo, and Sula-besi) lie midway
between Celebes and the Moluccas, being 80 miles from the nearest part of
Celebes, with several intervening islands, and 40 miles from Bouru, all
open sea. Their birds show, as might be expected, a blending of the two
faunas, but with a decided preponderance of that of Celebes. Out of 43 land
birds which have been collected in these islands, we may deduct 6 as of
wide range and no significance. Of the 37 remaining, 21 are Celebesian
species, and 4 are new species but {434}allied to those of Celebes; while
there are 10 Moluccan species and 2 new species allied to those of the
Moluccas. It is curious that no less than 3 Moluccan genera, quite unknown
in Celebes itself, occur here,--_Monarcha_, _Pachycephala_, and _Criniger_;
but all these, as well as several other of the Moluccan birds, are rather
weak flyers, and such as are likely to have been carried across by strong
winds. Of the _genera_, 23 are from Celebes, 10 from the Moluccas. These
facts show, that the Sula islands form part of the Celebes group, although
they have received an infusion of Moluccan forms, which will perhaps in
time spread to the main island, and diminish the remarkable individuality
that now characterises its fauna.
_Insects._--Of the reptiles and fishes of Celebes we have not sufficient
information to draw any satisfactory conclusions. I therefore pass to the
insects of which something more is known.
The Butterflies of Celebes are not very numerous, less than 200 species in
all having been collected; but a very large proportion of them, probably
three-fourths of the whole, are peculiar. There is only one peculiar genus,
_Amechania_, allied to _Zethera_ (a group confined to the Philippine
Islands), with which it should perhaps be united. Most of the genera are of
wide distribution in the archipelago, or are especially Malayan, only two
truly Australian genera, _Elodina_ and _Acropthalmia_, reaching Celebes. On
the other hand, 7 peculiar Oriental genera are found in Celebes, but not
further east, viz., _Clerome_, _Adolias_, _Euripus_, _Apatura_,
_Limenitis_, _Iolaus_, and _Leptocircus_. There are also several
indications of a direct affinity with the continent rather than with
Malaya, as in the cases already enumerated among birds. A fine butterfly,
yet unnamed, almost exactly resembles _Dichorragia nesimachus_, a Himalayan
species. _Euripus robustus_ is closely allied to _E. halitherses_ of N.
India; there are no less than 5 species of _Limenitis_, all quite unlike
those found in other parts of the archipelago. The butterflies of Celebes
are remarkably distinguished from all others in the East, by peculiarities
of form, size, and colour, which run through groups of species belonging to
different genera. Many Papilionidæ and Pieridæ, and some {435}Nymphalidæ,
have the anterior wings elongated, with the apex often acute, and, what is
especially remarkable, an abrupt bend or shoulder near the base of the
wing. (See _Malay Archipelago_, 3rd Ed. p. 281, woodcut.) No less than 13
species of _Papilio_, 10 Pieridæ, and 4 or 5 Nymphalidæ, are thus
distinguished from their nearest allies in the surrounding islands or in
India. In size again, a large number of Celebesian butterflies stand
preeminent over their allies. The fine Papilios--_adamantius_, _blumei_,
and _gigon_--are perfect giants by the side of the closely-allied forms of
Java; while _P. androcles_ is the largest and longest-tailed, of all the
true swallow-tailed group of the Old World. Among Nymphalidæ, the species
of _Rhinopalpa_ and _Euripus_, peculiar to Celebes, are immensely larger
than their nearest allies; and several of the Pieridæ are also decidedly
larger, though in a less marked degree. In colour, many of the Celebesian
butterflies differ from the nearest allied species; so that they acquire a
singularity of aspect which marks them off from the rest of the group. The
most curious case is that of three butterflies, belonging to three distinct
genera (_Cethosia myrina_, _Messaras mæonides_, and _Atella celebensis_)
all having a delicate violet or lilac gloss in lines or patches, which is
wholly wanting in every allied species of the surrounding islands. These
numerous peculiarities of Celebesian butterflies are very extraordinary;
and imply isolation from surrounding lands, almost as much as do the
strange forms of mammals and birds, which more prominently characterise
this interesting island.
Of the Coleoptera we know much less, but a few interesting facts may be
noted. There are a number of fine species of _Cicindela_, some of peculiar
forms; and one _Odontochila_, a South American genus; while _Collyris_
reaches Celebes from the Oriental region. In Carabidæ it has one peculiar
genus, _Dicraspeda_; and a species of the fine Australian genus
_Catadromus_. In Lucanidæ it has the Oriental genus, _Odontolabris_. In
Cetoniidæ it has a peculiar genus, _Sternoplus_, and several fine
_Cetoniæ_; but the characteristic Malayan genus, _Lomaptera_, found in
every other island of the archipelago from Sumatra to New Guinea, is
absent--an analogous fact to the case of _Ceyx_ among birds. {436}In
Buprestidæ, the principal Austro-Malay genus, _Sambus_, is found here;
while _Sponsor_, a genus 8 species of which inhabit Mauritius, has one
species here and one in New Guinea. In Longicorns there are four peculiar
genera, _Comusia_, _Pytholia_, _Bityle_, and _Ombrosaga_; but the most
important features are the occurrence of the otherwise purely Indo-Malayan
genera _Agelasta_, _Nyctimene_, and _Astathes_; and of the purely
Austro-Malayan _Arrhenotus_, _Trysimia_, _Xenolea_, _Amblymora_, _Diallus_,
and _Ægocidnus_. The remaining genera range over both portions of the
archipelago. In the extensive family of Curculionidæ we can only notice the
elegant genus, _Celebia_, allied to _Eupholus_, which, owing to its
abundance and beauty, is a conspicuous feature in the entomology of the
island.
_Origin of the fauna of Celebes._--We have now to consider, briefly, what
past changes of physical geography are indicated by the curious assemblage
of facts here adduced. We have evidently, in Celebes, a remnant of an
exceedingly ancient land, which has undergone many and varied revolutions;
and the stock of ancient forms which it contains must be taken account of,
when we speculate on the causes that have so curiously limited more recent
immigrations. Going back to the arrival of those genera which are
represented in Celebes by peculiar species, and taking first the
Austro-Malay genera, we find among them such groups as _Zonoenas_ (s.g.),
_Phlogoenas_, _Leucotreron_ (s.g.), and _Turacoena_, which are not found in
the Moluccas at all; and _Myzomela_, found in Timor and Banda, but not in
Ceram or Bouru, which are nearest to Celebes. This, combined with the
curious absence of so many of the commonest Moluccan genera, leads to the
conclusion that the Austro-Malay immigration took place by way of Timor and
the southern part of New Guinea. It will be remembered, that to account for
the Indo-Malayan forms in New Guinea, we suggested an extension of that
country in a westerly direction just north of Timor. Now this is exactly
what we require, to account for the stocking of Celebes with the Australian
forms it possesses. At this time Borneo did not approach so near, and it
was at a somewhat later period that the last great Indo-Malay migration set
in; but {437}finding the country already fairly stocked, comparatively few
groups were able to establish themselves.
Going back a little farther, we come to the entrance of those few birds and
insects which belong to India or Indo-China; and this probably occurred at
the same time as that continental extension southward, which we found was
required to account for a similar phenomenon in Java. Celebes, being more
remote, received only a few stragglers. We have now to go much farther
back, to the time when the ancestors of the peculiar Celebesian genera
entered the country, and here our conjectures must necessarily be less
defined.
On the Australian side we have to account for _Megacephalon_, and the other
genera of purely Papuan type. It may perhaps be sufficient to say, that we
do not yet know that these genera, or some very close allies, do not still
exist in New Guinea; in which case they may well have entered at the same
time with the species, already referred to. If, on the other hand, they are
really as isolated as they appear to be, they represent an earlier
communication, either by an approximation of the two islands over the space
now occupied by the Moluccas; or, what is perhaps more probable, through a
former extension of the Moluccas, which have since undergone so much
subsidence, as to lead to the extinction of a large proportion of their
ancient fauna. The wide-spread volcanic action, and especially the
prevalence of raised coral-reefs in almost all the islands, render this
last supposition very probable.
On the Oriental side the difficulty is greater; for here we find, what seem
to be clear indications of a connection with Africa, as well as with
Continental Asia, at some immensely remote epoch. _Cynopithecus_,
_Babirusa_, and _Anoa_; _Ceycopsis_, _Streptocitta_, and _Gazzola_ (s. g.),
and perhaps _Scissirostrum_, may be well explained as descendants of
ancestral types in their respective groups, which also gave rise to the
special forms of Africa on the one hand, and of Asia on the other. For this
immigration we must suppose, that at a period before the formation of the
present Indo-Malay Islands, a great tract of land extended in a
north-westerly direction, till it met the old Asiatic continent. This may
have been before {438}the Himalayas had risen to any great height, and when
a large part of what are now the cold plateaus of Central Asia may have
teemed with life, some forms of which are preserved in Africa, some in
Malaya, and a few in Celebes. Here may have lived the common ancestor of
_Sus_, _Babirusa_, and _Phacochoerus_; as well as of _Cynopithecus_,
_Cynocephalus_, and _Macacus_; of _Anoa_ and _Bubalus_; of _Scissirostrum_
and _Euryceros_; of _Ceyx_, _Ceycopsis_, and _Ispidina_. Such an origin
accounts, too, for the presence of the North-Indian forms in Celebes; and
it offers less difficulties than a direct connection with continental
Africa, which once appeared to be the only solution of the problem. If this
south-eastward extension of Asia occurred at the same time as the
north-eastward extension of South Africa and Madagascar, the two early
continents may have approached each other sufficiently to have allowed of
some interchange of forms: _Tarsius_ may be the descendant of some Lemurine
animal that then entered the Malayan area, while the progenitors of
_Cryptoprocta_ may then have passed from Asia to Madagascar.
It is true that we here reach the extremest limits of speculation; but when
we have before us such singular phenomena as are presented by the fauna of
the island of Celebes, we can hardly help endeavouring to picture to our
imaginations by what past changes of land and sea (in themselves not
improbable) the actual condition of things may have been brought about.
_II. Australia and Tasmania, or the Australian Sub-region._
A general sketch of Australian zoology having been given in the earlier
part of this chapter, it will not be necessary to occupy much time on this
sub-region, which is as remarkably homogeneous as the one we have just left
is heterogeneous. Although much of the northern part of Australia is within
the tropics, while Victoria and Tasmania are situated from 36° to 43° south
latitude, there is no striking change in the character of the fauna
throughout the continent; a number of important genera extending over the
whole country, and giving a very uniform character to its zoology. The
eastern parts, including the colonies of New South Wales and Queensland,
are undoubtedly the richest, several peculiar types being found only here.
The southern portion is somewhat poorer, and has very few peculiar forms;
and Tasmania being isolated is poorer still, yet its zoology has much
resemblance to that of Victoria, from which country it has evidently not
been very long separated. The north, as far as yet known, is characterised
by hardly any peculiar forms, but by the occurrence of a number of Papuan
types, which have evidently been derived from New Guinea.
Plate XI.
[Illustration]
A SCENE IN TASMANIA, WITH CHARACTERISTIC MAMMALIA.
{439}_Mammalia._--The Australian sub-region contains about 160 species of
Mammalia, of which 3 are Monotremata, 102 Marsupials, 23 Chiroptera, 1
Carnivora (the native dog, probably not indigenous), and 31 Muridæ. The
north is characterised by a species of the Austro-Malayan genus _Cuscus_.
_Phascolarctos_ (the koala, or native bear) is found only in the eastern
districts; _Phascolomys_ (the wombat) in the south-east and Tasmania;
_Petaurista_ (a peculiar form of flying opossum) in the east. _Thylacinus_
(the zebra-wolf), and _Sarcophilus_ (the "native devil"), two carnivorous
marsupials, are confined to Tasmania. West Australia, the most isolated and
peculiar region botanically, alone possesses the curious little
honey-eating _Tarsipes_, and the _Peragalea_, or native rabbit. The
remarkable _Myrmecobius_, a small ant-eating marsupial, is found in the
west and south; and _Onychogalea_, a genus of kangaroos, in West and
Central Australia. All the other genera have a wider distribution, as will
be seen by a reference to the list at the end of this chapter.
_Plate XI. A Scene in Tasmania, with Characteristic Mammalia._--As some of
the most remarkable Mammalia of the Australian region are now found only in
Tasmania, we have chosen this island for the scene of our first
illustration of the fauna of the Australian sub-region. The pair of large
striped animals are zebra-wolves (_Thylacinus cynocephalus_), the largest
and most destructive of the carnivorous marsupials. These creatures used to
be tolerably plentiful in Tasmania, where they are alone found. They are
also called "native tigers," or "native hyænas;" and being destructive to
sheep, they have been destroyed by the farmers and will doubtless soon be
exterminated. In the foreground on {440}the left is a bandicoot (_Perameles
gunnii_). These are delicate little animals allied to the kangaroos; and
they are found in all parts of Australia, and Tasmania, to which latter
country this species is confined. On the right is the wombat (_Phascolomys
wombat_), a root-eating marsupial, with large incisor teeth like those of
our rodents. They inhabit south-east Australia and Tasmania. In the
foreground is the porcupine ant-eater (_Echidna setosa_), belonging to a
distinct order of mammalia, Monotremata, of which the only other member is
the duck-billed _Ornithorhynchus_. These animals are, however, more nearly
allied to the marsupials, than to the insectivora or edentata of the rest
of the world, which in some respects they resemble. An allied species
(_Echidna hystrix_) inhabits south-east Australia.
_Birds._--Australia (with Tasmania) possesses about 630 species of birds,
of which 485 are land-birds. Not more than about one-twentieth of these are
found elsewhere, so that it has a larger proportion of endemic species than
any other sub-region on the globe. These birds are divided among the
several orders as follows:
Passeres 306
Picariæ 41
Psittaci 60
Columbæ 24
Gallinæ 15
Accipitres 36
Grallæ 77
Anseres 65
Struthiones 3
The Psittaci, we see, are very richly represented, while the Picariæ are
comparatively few; and the Columbæ are scarce as compared with their
abundance in the Austro-Malay sub-region.