36 BARBOUR: ZOOGEOGRAPHY. 



account altogether numerous forms which without doubt occur, but which have 

 not as yet been found in modern collections where careful data have been pre- 

 served. 



It may be well to caution students here against the frequency with which 

 species of the most improbable occiurence have been recorded in the past from 

 the two ancient settlements of Ambon and Ternate. In speaking of Java we 

 had occasion to mention how recently it had been supposed that there was a 

 Papuan element in the fauna there; and the occasion for such supposition was 

 based on just such records as these of which we complain here. Bleeker was the 

 chief offender in tliis direction. No further excuse is needed for disbelieving 

 Bleeker's records than the fact that in 1860 he recorded Calamaria calamaria, 

 Plyas korros, and Natrix subminiata all from Wahaai, Ceram, as well as a host 

 of other species equally impossible, from Ceram and other islands near bj^ 



Ambon possesses a single fresh-water tortoise, the wide-ranging Cyclemys 

 ambonensis (Daudin), and this species is also found on Bin-u. Crocodilus porosits 

 .Schn. is also reported from the former island. ■ 



Lizards are few in number. The wide-ranging Lepidodactylus luguhris 

 (Dum. & Bibr.) occurs, as well as two species of Gekko — the Malayan G. mon- 

 archus (Dum. & Bibr.) and Papuan G. vittatus Houttuyn, the latter reaching here 

 the western limit of its range, though occurring also on Burn. Another Malayan 

 derivative is Draco lineatus Daudin, the sole representative of the genus in the 

 Moluccan region. It has a circumscribed range, being at present known from 

 only four islands: — Ambon, Buru, Ceram, and Mysol. The latter island we 

 shall consider separately later on. It should be particularly noted here that, in 

 spite of the careful collecting on Halmahera, no Draco has been found there. 



Caloies crisialellus Kuhl is found on most of the Moluccas, both ^Ambon and 

 Buru being in the list. Varanus vndicus (Daudin), another wide-ranging form, 

 is found on both islands. The Papuan Tiliqua gigas (Schneider) occurs on 

 Ambon, but not on Buru, as does also Dasia smaragdinum (Lesson). The 

 writer, however, saw what he was quite sure was this species, at Tifu in Buru, 

 though no other record exists, and the specimen unfortunately was not taken. 



Leiolepisma fuscum (Dum. & Bibr.) and L. novae-guineae (Meyer) both occur 

 on Ambon. Emnia cyanurum (Lesson) is reported from both islands, and E. 

 baudinii (Dum. & Bibr.) is reported from Buru, but not from Ambon. 



Boettger, in reporting on Kiikenthal's collection from Halmahera, separated 

 specifically a number of seines which had previously been supposed to be wide- 

 ranging forms, and as yet we do not know just how widely distributed these are 



