Introduction: Seasons and Winds. 33 



and morning, rising sometimes to 32" — 35" C. at midday. In the interior it is 

 less hot, the nights being even cold and damp. In Billiton the damp atmosphere 

 is sometimes very oppressive, although the temperature in the morning and 

 evening is 22" — 23.5" C. , and rarely more than 29" C. at midday; the nights 

 very cool (de Hollander, t. c, 812, 828; van der Stok, Wind and Weather). 



Java. — The chief meteorologic conditions of this island as recorded by 

 de Hollander have been already given (pp. 22 — 24). Bad weather is encoun- 

 tered during the N. W. Monsoon (October to April) ; the fine season accompanies 

 the S. E. Monsoon in the months of our summer. On the south coast mu.ch 

 wet is also brought up by the S.E. Monsoon from the Indian Ocean, particularly 

 towards the western parts of this coast, but the true rainy season here as else- 

 where is during the N.W. Monsoon. It has been said that bad weather marks 

 the shifting of the Monsoons; there set in "wild storms from the W. and N.W."; 

 "storms of wind and rain beneath a clouded sky alternate with severe gales and 

 heavy winds" ("Jansen in Maury's Phys. Geogr. Sea, 14*'' ed., 380); but the 

 extensive observations of van der Stok lead him to the opposite conclusion 

 ■ — that "the condition of the sea is at its best when the Monsoons turn, i. e. in 

 March, April, and November" (op. cit. p. 57). 



The Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Timor, 

 Rotti, Timorlaut, and the intermediate smaller islands). — The wet and the dry 

 seasons are here very strongly contrasted, especially in Timor. In this island 

 hardly a drop of rain falls during the five months June — October, while an 

 abundance comes down in December, January and February. The rivers are 

 said to be then overstreaming , but during the S. E. Monsoon many are dried 

 up, and the thermometer then rises to 52" C. in the sun and 35" C. in the 

 shade. A similar drought in summer is found at least on the north coast of 

 the other islands (Bali, Sumbawa). Flores is subject to manifold and sudden 

 changes in the atmosphere, making it very unhealthy. An injurious wind, the 

 "Anging bolo", occurs, as mentioned above (p. 27) , in Sumbawa where the 

 climate is considered unhealthy. The Lesser Sunda Islands as a whole receive 

 far less rain than Java, Celebes or the Moluccas, and only about one-half or 

 one-third the amount of that which falls in Borneo, and ornithologists should 

 not neglect to make studies of possible climatic variation among allied species 

 of birds in these regions, such as have been made on certain birds in North 

 America by Allen (see, below p. 58). It may be that the climate has had some- 

 thing to do with "Wallace's Line" as far as it goes (see, below pp. 81 — 89), for 

 not all animals and plants can exist indifferently in a wet climate like that of 

 Borneo and a dry one like that of the l^esser Sundas. A general similarity 

 between Timor and Australia has been noticed, and it should not be forgotten 

 that the S.E. Monsoon, which is productive of the drought in the Lesser Sundas 

 blows out of the arid deserts of Australia, and it may bring many things directly 

 with it, just as the returning N.W. Monsoon may carry to Australia any thing 

 that is capable of sustaining a voyage through the air. 



Meyer & Wiglesworth, Birds of Celebes (May Jtii, 1s»S). 5 



