GEOGRAPHY OF THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 173 



been detected in the adjacent islands of Java and Borneo. Of all 

 the varied forms of Quadrummia, Carnivom, Insectivora and Bumi- 

 nantia which abound in the western half of the Archipelago, the 

 only genera found in the Moluccas are Paradoxiirus and Cervus. 

 The Sciuridcs, so numerous in the western islands, are represented 

 in Celebes by only two or three species, while not one is found 

 further east. Birds furnish equally remarkable illustrations. The 

 Australian region is the richest in the world in Parrots ; the 

 Asiatic is (of ti-opical regions) the poorest. Three entire families 

 of the Psittacine order are peculiar to the former region, and two 

 of them, the Cockatoos and the Lories, extend up to its extreme 

 limits, without a solitary species passing into the Indian islands of 

 the Archipelago. The genus Palceornis is, on the other hand, con- 

 fined with equal strictness to the Indian region. In the Rasorial 

 order, the Phasianidce are Indian, the MegapodiidiS Australian ; but 

 in this case one species of each family just passes the limits into 

 the adjacent region. The genus Tropidorhynchus, highly charac- 

 teristic of the Australian region, and everywhere abundant as well 

 in the Moluccas and New Guinea as in Australia, is quite un- 

 known in Java and Borneo. On the other hand, the entire families 

 of Bucconidw, Trogonidce and Phyllornithidce, and the genera Peri- 

 crocotus, Picnonotus, Trichophorus, Iccos, in fact, almost all the 

 vast family of Thrushes and a host of other genera, cease abruptly 

 at the eastern side of Borneo, Java, and Bali. AH these groups 

 are common hh'ds in the great Indian islands ; they abound every- 

 where ; they are the characteristic features of the ornithology ; and 

 it is most striking to a naturalist, on passing the narrow straits of 

 Macassar and Lombock, suddenly to miss them entirely, together 

 with the Quadrvmana and Felidcr, the Insectivora and Bodentia, 

 whose varied species people the forests of Sumatra, Java, and 

 Boi'neo. 



To define exactly the limits of the two regions where they are 

 (geographically) most intimately connected,! may mention that du- 

 ring a few days' stay in the island of Bali I found birds of the genera 

 Copsyclms, Megalaima, Tiga, Ploceus, and Sturnopastor, all charac- 

 teristic of the Indian region and abundant in Malacca, Java, and 

 Borneo ; while on crossing over to Lombock, during three months 

 collecting there, not one of them was ever seen ; neither have they 

 occurred in Celebes nor ia any of the more eastern islands I have 

 visited. Takiag this in connexion with the fact of Cacatua, Tropi- 

 dorliynchus, and Megapodius having their western limit in Lom- 

 bock, we may consider it established that the Strait of Lombock 



