222 ox THE GEOGRAPHICAL 



Philippines, or on the continent of Asia ; and that it 

 shews, in each of those places, differences, indeed often 

 very slight, bnt usually constant. We ask, how are we 

 to dispose of these local varieties 1 Are we to consider 

 them as such, or as races of the same species, or are they 

 desei*ving of being elevated to the rank of species 1 The 

 attempts which I may be said to have made to accommo- 

 date my views to Nature, lead me to conclude, that to 

 designate each of such petty varieties under a proper and 

 specific name, would tend to the confusion of science ; and 

 that it would be more profitaljlc to recognise one only of 

 the conditions which modify the nature of animals, than to 

 augment the catalogue of them viith many new names. 

 I know that my readers will have difficulty in forming 

 an idea, from description, of all the minute modifications 

 which tiie same sjoccies imdergoes in different places, and 

 that it is often difficult to indicate them ; but not being 

 able to place before their eyes those immense collections, 

 and those numerous series of individuals of the same spe- 

 cies, in a word, the materials which have served as the 

 basis of my work, I am obliged to state some facts in 

 justification of my manner of vie"v\dng the question. Let 

 us take our examples first from the Mammifera. 



The most common monkey, that most widely spread 

 through the Indian Archipelago, is the Macaque of 

 BuFFOX, the Hare-lij^ped Monkey of Penxant, Cerco- 

 pithecus C}iiomolgus. The ordinary variety of this spe- 

 cies comes from the Island of Java ; it is constantly of a 

 greenish tint, and the hairs of the head are a little ele- 

 vated into a sort of tuft ; the specimens from Timor re- 

 semble those of Java in all respects, except that they have 

 deeper tints, and that their fur is more close, which gives 

 them the appearance of having the limbs less slender 

 than the indi\'iduals from Java : those from the Island of 

 Sumatra often have the back of a reddish tint ; their face 

 is somewhat more black than usual ; the hairs of the 

 head shorter, and incapable of being raised into a tuft : 

 the race of the Island of Borneo is, in some measure, in- 

 termediate between that of Sumatra and Java, having the 

 tint of the fur of those of Java, and resembling those of 



