348 Mr. A. R. Wallace un the Ornithology of Timor. 



scarce, and in the dry season extensive tracts of country are 

 destitute of water, circumstances not likely to be favourable to 

 bird-life. 



Notwithstanding these disadvantages, however, I have ob- 

 tained upwards of a hundred species of birds, about two-thirds or 

 perhaps three-fourths of which number are altogether peculiar to 

 the island of Timor, although closely allied to those of the sur- 

 rounding countries. Australian forms are, as might be ex- 

 pected, the most numerous, and it is from that country that 

 Timor has evidently derived the greater portion of its birds. 

 Even where the genus is widely distributed we can often see 

 that the particular species has been derived from Australia, as 

 Artamus perspicillatus and Aprosmidus vulneratus, which are 

 slight modifications of Australian species ; while others, as Ama- 

 dina castanotis, have remained altogether unchanged. On the 

 other hand, the resemblance to the Moluccas is very slight. 

 Lorius, Eos, and all the characteristic forms of New Guinea, are 

 quite wanting ; and there are only three birds that seem to have 

 been derived from the Moluccan or Papuan faunas — viz. 

 Geoffroius jukesii, Ptilonopus flavicollis, and lanthcenas metallica. 

 The relation is equally slight to Celebes, and is shown only by 

 the Turacoena modesta, closely allied to the T. manadensis, Q. & G., 

 of Celebes, and the Ptilonopus cinctus, forming, with the P. 

 gularis of Celebes, the subgenus Leucotreron, Bp. I very much 

 regret not having obtained the other species of this interesting 

 group, which my friend Mr. Geach assures me are found in the 

 interior of the island. In particular he mentioned a species re- 

 sembling the P. cinctus, but in which the white forms a ring 

 round the neck, and his opinion was that there existed in Timor 

 three or four species of the same group having the colours 

 differently distributed. 



Besides the birds already mentioned, and which are all more 

 or less characteristic of the Australian region, Timor contains an 

 important Indian element, consisting of Javan species or their 

 representatives. The genera Lanius, Cijoriiis, Treron, Gallus, 

 and Estrelda occur here, but are not found in any part of the 

 Moluccas, and only one or two of them in Celebes. About thirty 

 species thus appear to have been " derived from Java, which. 



