GHAP. XX CELEBES 459 



portion does not differ much from that afforded by the 

 non-peculiar species ; and it teaches us that, for a consider- 

 able period, Celebes has been receiving immigrants from 

 all sides, many of which have had time to become modified 

 into distinct representative species. These evidently 

 belong to the period during which Borneo on the one side, 

 and the Moluccas on the other, have occupied very much 

 the same relative position as now. There remain the 

 twelve peculiar Celebesian genera, to which we must look 

 for some further clue as to the origin of the older portion 

 of the fauna ; and as these are especially interesting we 

 must examine them somewhat closely. 



Bird-types Peculiar to Celebes. — First we have Artamides, 

 one of the Campephaginse or caterpillar-shrikes — a not 

 very well-marked genus, and which may have been 

 derived, either from the Malayan or the Moluccan side of 

 the Archipelago. Two peculiar genera of kingfishers — 

 Monachalcyon and Cittura — seem allied, the former to the 

 widespread Todiram23hus and to the Caridonax of Lombok, 

 the latter to the Australian Melidora. Another kingfisher, 

 Ceycopsis, combines the characters of the Malayan Ceyx 

 and the African Ispidina, and thus forms an example of an 

 ancient generalised form analogous to what occurs among 

 the mammalia. Streptocitta is a peculiar form allied to 

 the magpies ; while Basilornis (found also in Ceram), 

 Enodes, and Scissirostrum, are very peculiar starlings, the 

 latter altogether unlike any other bird, and perhaps form- 

 ing a distinct sub-family. Meropogon is a peculiar bee- 

 eater, allied to the Malayan Nyctiornis ; Rhamphococyx is 

 a modification of Phsenicophaes, a Malayan genus of 

 cuckoos ; Prioniturus (found also in the Philippines) is a 

 genus of parrots distinguished by raquet-formed tail 

 feathers, altogether unique in the order ; while Megace- 

 phalon is a remarkable and very isolated form of the 

 Australian Megapodiidse, or mound-builders. 



Omitting those Avhose affinity may be pretty clearly 

 traced to groups still inhabiting the islands of the western 

 or the eastern half of the Archipelago, we find four birds 

 which have no near allies at all, but appear to be either 

 ancestral forms, or extreme modifications, of Asiatic or 



