234: ON THE GEOaRAPHICAL 



and Bengal, do not appear to occur in any other of the 

 Sunda islands, except Java. Borneo, the largest of Malay- 

 asian islands, was not known at all, as to its natural his- 

 tory, until the excursion which Messrs Diard, Korthals, 

 and MiJLLER made into the interior of that country. The 

 Elepliant does not appear to inhalnt it ; but they found 

 there the Indian Tapir, and they had positive proofs of the 

 occurrence of a Rhinoceros there, although they did not 

 ascertain to which species it belonged. Borneo has, in 

 common with Sumatra, the Orang-outan, the Semnopithe- 

 cus nasicus, and S. cristatus, the Felis macrocelis, the 

 Inuus nemcstrinus, the Argus, »S:c. : the Hylobates of that 

 isle is so near that of Java, that it cannot be considered as 

 a particular species ; there is also found a Semnopithe- 

 cus resembling the S. pj^rrlius of Java ; the large Stag 

 approaches to the C. hippelaphus of Sumatra, and the 

 Ursus Malayanus has also been seen in Borneo. The 

 Manmiifera, peculiar to the island, all belong to new species, 

 of small size ; and several curious animals begin to appear 

 there, whose real native seat is the Moluccas : such as, 

 among the Mammals, are the Tarsius (Didclphis macrotarsus, 

 Gmel.) Among the reptiles are the Basilisk and others.* 

 — It is in the Island of Celebes that the forms of animals, 

 altogether peculiar, manifest themselves, or species of which 

 no trace is found in the Isles of Sunda : such are the 

 Phalangers, the Babyi'ussa, the Harpya, the Cephalotes, 

 the Megapodes, the Antilope Celebica, the Emerald- Scink, 

 and that with a blue tail ; animals, the major part of which 

 inhabit also the little kno^^^l neighbouring isles, the Moluc- 

 cas, or even (as in the case with the Little Blue-tailed 

 Scink) the islands in the South Sea. Among the ser- 

 pents of Celebes are remarked a beautiful Herpetodryas, 

 H. Dipsas, and the Dipsas irregularis, which is also found 

 in Amboina : several other species are identical with those 

 of Java or Sumatra ; but several among them form con- 



* MM. MiiLLER. and Koethals have arrived in Europe with a part 

 of the rich collections, formed lately by them in Borneo : I regret not 

 having been able to make use of it for my work ; but I have profited 

 by the verbal communications which these gentlemen have been so good 

 as to make to me. 



