198 THE STORY OF BIRD-LIFE. 



those to the east id the Australian. The islands 

 lying on either side of this line lie in a shallow- 

 sea, and were doubtless connected, at no remote 

 period, with one another, and with the nearest 

 mainlands — Asia and Australia, with which they 

 respectively agree in the nature of the fauna and 

 flora. The width of the sea between Bali and 

 Lombok is only fifteen miles. Its depth is over 

 1000 i'athoms. These two islands are the ex- 

 tremest limits of two vast continents which 

 formerly extended from Asia on the one hand 

 and Australia on the other. The contrast in 

 the fauna is abrupt. In Bali, representing the 

 Asiatic continent, "we have," says Mr Wallace, 

 "barbets, fruit-thrushes and woodpeckers; in 

 passing over to Lombok, these are seen no 

 more, but we have abundance of cockatoos, 

 honeysuckers and brush - turkeys, which are 

 equally unknown in Bali, or any island further 

 west. The strait is here fifteen miles wide, so 

 that we may pass in two hours from one great 

 division of the earth to another, differing as 

 essentially in their animal life as Europe does 

 from America. ... The birds which are most 

 abundant in the western islands are the wood- 

 peckers, barbets, trogons, fruit-thrushes and leaf- 

 thrushes ; they are seen daily, and form the great 

 ornithological features of the country. In the 

 eastern islands these are absolutely unknown, 

 honey-suckers and small lories being the most 

 common birds ; so that the naturalist leels himself 

 in a new world, and can hardly realise that he has 

 passed from the one region to the other in a few 

 days, without ever being out of sight of land." 



