38 BARBOUR: ZOOGEOGRAPHY. 



throughout the Moluccas, varjang, it is true, among the different groups, only 

 one or two Malayan species at most reach the mainland of Papua. Yet there 

 are many genera which are characteristic of the western islands represented by 

 well-defined peculiar species of local origin. 



Ceram. 



Certain peculiarities regarding the fauna of this island make it necessary 

 to speak of it separately, and to include it neither with Ambon or Burn on the 

 one hand, — though it would seem to be intimately related to Ambon hydro- 

 graphically, — nor with the Halmahera group, from which it is separated by a 

 wide and deep channel, on the other hand. The island itself is of considerable 

 size and, so far as its reptiles and amphibians go, is incompletely explored. The 

 interior is mountainous, and still inhabited by many tribes as yet unsubdued 

 by the Dutch and dangerous to the traveller. It is about 200 miles long, and 

 varies in width from twenty-five to fifty miles. It is connected by numerous 

 small islands, which are separated from each other by what appear to be shallow 

 channels, — though here again plentiful soundings are wanting, — with the Ke 

 Islands, which lie to the southeast. It is along this route that an ancient con- 

 nection with New Guinea may have existed. There may have been a double 

 bridging here, to Ke, on the one hand, and on the other to Mysol. 



There are no tortoises recorded from the island. Crocodilus porosus Schn. 

 is said to occur, though no record of it has been published, so far as I know. 

 I have, however, myself seen the tracks of crocodiles in the mud in mangrove 

 swamps on the south coast of Ceram, and there is no doubt as to their being 

 of this species. Omitting the older and doubtful accounts of Bleeker, we find 

 few recent definite records. They are as follows : — 



Of saurians these — Gekko vittatus Houttuyn, a Papuan form. 



Draco lineatus Daudin, a Moluccan representative of a Malayan genus.^ 



Calotes cristatellus Kuhl, Malayan in origin. 



Varanns indicus (Daud.), Papuasian. 



Tiliqua gigas (Schn.), Papuan in origin. 



Mabuya muUifasciata Kuhl., a Malayan form. 



Dasia smaragdinum (Lesson), wide-ranging throughout the whole archi- 

 pelago, but probably Papuan in origin. 



Leiolepisma fuscum (Dum. & Bibr.), Papuan. 



' Werner, in a recent paper (Mitt. Nat. mus. Hamburg, 1910, 23, p. 20), has recorded Dracn timoren- 

 sis Kuhl. from Ceram. This is most surprising and needs confirmation. 



