Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Ornithology of Timor. 349 



though 600 miles distant from Timor, is connected with it by a 

 chain of islands ; and between these more than twenty miles of 

 sea nowhere intervenes, so that the passage across might have 

 been easily effected by the progenitors of these birds, which are 

 all capable of greater powers of flight than the circumstances 

 would require. 



The absence oiMegapodius from Timor — a fact already noticed 

 by the Dutch naturalists, and which all my inquiries tend to 

 confirm — is a very singular one, because the genus exists in every 

 other island of the Australian region, and even in the little 

 island of Semao, at the west end of Timor. I can only conjec- 

 ture that it may have been exterminated by the Tiger-cat, said to 

 exist in the interior. Taking into consideration the absence of 

 such characteristic Australian birds as Dacelo, Malurus, Cracti- 

 cus, and Casuarius, together with the non-existence of a single 

 Australian genus of Mammals, I cannot believe that Timor has 

 ever been actually connected with Australia, though the sea 

 which separates them has probably been much narrower than at 

 present, as is indicated by the great Sahul bank, which now 

 extends from the shores of Northern Australia to within twenty 

 miles of the south coast of Timor. 



We may therefore, I think, fairly look upon the fauna of Timor 

 as almost entirely derived by immigration from the surrounding 

 countries, and subsequently modified by the reciprocal action of 

 the species on each other and by the influence of a new vegeta- 

 tion. In accordance with this view we find the external relations 

 of the genera and species of which it is composed varying in 

 degree with the varying distances of the surrounding lands, and 

 the probability of the reception of immigrants from them. 



The Dutch naturalists who explored the interior of the west 

 part of Timor seem to have collected a great many birds, and 

 some French expeditions have also visited it. It thus happens 

 that most of the species are already known, though I suppose 

 many of them are rare in collections. I have 10 species of 

 Pigeons ; and there is still one, mentioned in Bonaparte's ' Con- 

 spectus ' as Ptilonopus viridissimus, which I have not met with. 

 Trichoglossus euteles was very abundant on the flowers of the 

 Eucalypti ; a smaller red-capped species ( T. iris ?) also occurred ; 



