456 ISLAND LIFE 



The remaining twelve species are, generally speaking, 

 of Malayan or Asiatic types, but some of tliem are so 

 peculiar that they have no near allies in any part of the 

 world ; while the rest are of the ordinary Malay type or 

 even identical with Malayan species, and some of these 

 may be recent introductions through human agency. 

 These twelve species of Asiatic type will be now 

 enumerated. They consist of five peculiar squirrels — a 

 group unknown farther east ; a peculiar species of wild 

 pig ; a deer so closely allied to the Cervus M2?]3el(qjlms of 

 Borneo that it may well have been introduced by man 

 both here and in the Moluccas; a civet, Viverra 

 tangcdunga, common in all the Malay Islands, and also 

 perhaps introduced ; the curious Malayan tarsier {Tarsius 

 spectrum) said to be only found in a small island off the 

 coast ; — and besides these, three remarkable animals, all of 

 large size and all quite unlike anything found in the 

 Malay Islands or even in Asia. These are a black and 

 almost tailless baboon-like ape {Cynointhcus nigrescens) ; 

 an antelopean buffalo {Anoa clcpressicornis), and the 

 strange babirusa (Babirusa alfurus). 



None of these three animals last mentioned has any 

 close allies elscAvhere, and their presence in Celebes may 

 be considered the crucial fact which must give us the clue 

 to the past history of the island. Let us then see what 

 they teach us. The ape is apparently somewhat in- 

 termediate between the great baboons of Africa and the 

 short-tailed macaques of Asia, but its cranium shows a 

 nearer approach to the former group, in its flat projecting 

 muzzle, large superciliary crests, and mnxillary ridges. 

 The anoa, though anatomically allied to the buffaloes, ex- 

 ternally more resembles the bovine antelopes of Africa; 

 while the babirusa is altogether unlike any other living 

 member of the swine family, the canines of the upper jaws 

 growing directly uj^wards like horns, forming a S23iral curve 

 over the eyes, instead of downwards, as in all other 

 mammalia. An approach to this peculiarity is made by 

 the African wart-hogs, in which the upper tusk grows out 

 laterally and then curves up ; but these animals are not 

 otherwise closely allied to the babirusa. 



