JAVA. 21 



elude the possibility of a bridge having existed in the past between these two 

 islands. Many similar cases are known at the present time where a recent land 

 bridge has disappeared leaving a very deep channel. (Cf. Suess, Natural 

 science, 1893, 2, p. 180-187). 



Java. 



Although we have not had within recent years a complete list, based on a 

 large amount of material, giving us an up-to-date knowledge of the Javan 

 reptiles and amphibians, still we have a multitude of data from many sources, 

 so that we may say that Java is the most completely known of any one of the 

 East Indies. Since the earUest times, when Kuhl, Boie, Bleeker, Schlegel, 

 Edeling, and other Dutch naturalists began describing species, Java has at- 

 tracted a host of naturalists, even to the present time, largely on account of 

 its botanical gardens, the most beautiful and famous in the world. Many of 

 these naturalists have made collections, so that the region about Batavia and 

 Buitenzorg is the type locality for more East Indian species than any other. 

 This is the region whence came most of the forms described by Boie in Isis, 1827. 

 It is also one of the few islands where we have data regarding the vertical distribu- 

 tion of species, as well as the limits of their range within the island itself. In 

 spite of the fact that it supports an enormous population — about thirty-five 

 milUons of people — and that it is only about the size of the state of New York, 

 being about 550 miles long and from 60 to 120 miles wide, Java has considerable 

 areas of wooded lowland, quite uncultivated, and many of the mountain slopes 

 are covered with splendid forests of marvellous tropical luxuriance, so that, 

 contrary to what one might suppose, reptiles are very plentiful upon the island. 

 In the systematic account of collections we made there, notes are included which 

 have a bearing on local distribution, as well as something regarding relative 

 abundance. 



With so considerable a literature, it would be strange if erroneous records 

 had not crept in; it is not strange, then, that in 1900 Werner wrote: "Was 

 Java anbelangt, so hat diese Insel im Vergleich zu Sumatra schon ganz deutliche 

 Anklange an die Fauna der Molukken und theilweise sogar Papuasiens aufzu- 

 weisen; Draco lineatus, Lophura amboinensis, Tiliqua gigas, Cornufer corrugatus 

 sind Beispiele hierfiir." 



Now, the mere fact that none of these species occurs on the Lesser Sunda 

 Islands is sufficient to show that there is something wrong with the records. 

 In the first place, it had long been supposed that Draco lineatus occurred upon 



