150 Natukal History of the 



ands of the Archipelago; and 'it is only by such striking 

 phenomena as the occurrence of northern and even European 

 genera on the summits of the Javanese mountains that we 

 can prove the former connection of that island with the 

 Asiatic continent. With land animals, however, the case is 

 very different. Their means of passing a wide expanse of 

 sea are far more resti'icted. Their distribution has been 

 more accurately studied, and we possess a much more com- 

 plete knowledge of such groups as mammals and birds in 

 most of the islands than we do of the plants. It is these two 

 classes which will supply us with most of our facts as to the 

 geographical distribution of organized beings in this region. 



The number of Mammalia known to inhabit the Indo-Ma- 

 lay region is very considerable, exceeding 1 70 species. With 

 the exception of the bats, none of these have any regular 

 means of passing arms of the sea many miles in extent, and 

 a consideration of their distribution must therefore greatly 

 assist us in determining whether these islands have ever 

 been connected with each other or with the continent since 

 the epoch of existing species. 



The Quadrumana, or monkey tribe, form one of the most 

 characteristic features of this region. Twenty-four distinct 

 species are known to inhabit it, and these are distributed 

 with tolerable uniformity over the islands, nine being found 

 in Java, ten in the Malay Peninsula, eleven in Sumatra, and 

 thirteen in Borneo. The great man-like orang-utans are 

 found only in Sumatra and Borneo; the curious siamang 

 (next to them in size) in Sumatra and Malacca ; the long- 

 nosed monkey only in Borneo ; while every island has repre- 

 sentatives of the Gibbons, or long-armed apes, and of monk- 

 eys. The lemur-like animals, Nycticebus, Tarsius, and Ga- 

 leopithecus, are found in all the islands. 



Seven species found on the Malay Peninsula extend also 

 into Sumatra, four into Borneo, and three into Java ; while 

 two range into Siam and Burmah, and one into North India. 

 With the exception of the orang-utan, the siamang, the Tar- 

 sius spectrum, and the Galeopithecus, all the Malayan genera 

 of Quadrumana are represented in India by closely allied 

 species, although, owing to the limited range of most of these 

 animals, so few are absolutely identical. 



