i30 Introduction: Geographical Distribution. 



The result of our study of the birds of Celebes, as well as of those of the 

 countries around, is that by its Avifauna Celebes has far stronger connections 

 with the Philippines than with any of the other neighbouring lands, and that 

 the relation of its birds with the Oriental Region is more than twice as strong 

 as with the Australian Region. 



The line between Celebes and Borneo , though not that between Bali and 

 liombok, no doubt represents a conspicuous faunistic frontier, which remains un- 

 altered even if the oldest continental frontier in earlier times was more to the 

 east, but this line between Celebes and Borneo has not the fundamental signi- 

 ficance which is still attributed to it by many writers. Even to-day the broad 

 strait is nearly bridged over by shallows between South Celebes and Borneo (see 

 map I). The line is not the western frontier of the Australian Region. The 

 origin of the Celebesian Avifauna is principally an Asiatic one, but Celebes as 

 a whole, or as a group of islands, was separated early from the continent, or 

 never was intimately connected with it; its Avifauna, therefore, remained poor 

 and must be pronounced an impoverished Asiatic one, but in consequence of 

 isolation, peculiar forms were developed. The Papuan elements in it can be 

 simply explained in view of the geographical position by the dispersal of birds 

 through flight. This agrees very well with the results arrived at by Prof. Weber 

 and Prof. v. Martens and others (see above pp. 85, 87 et seq.). 



The special faunas of Celebes, however, and of all islands of the East Indian 

 Archipelago are far from worked out and we shall not live to see this. It will 

 be the labour of a century and more. The future, therefore, only can decide, 

 whether the ornithological facts as at present known teach us correctly that 

 Celebes belongs to the Oriental Region and not to the Australian, and 

 that it is most appro])riate and safe to adojit a Transition-Zone between 

 these two Regions, comprising a Celebesian Area, besides severally a 

 Philippine, a Moluccan and a Lesser Sundan Area, of which the Celebesian 

 has been treated of as to its Avifauna in our present essay. 



After all we have not been able to discover anything very extraordinary 

 about the birds of the island of Celebes. Its most striking feature is not that it 

 has so many highly peculiar forms, but so extremely few. It has nothing among 

 its birds to compare with a Dodo, or a Kiwi; it has not even a single peculiar 

 avian family; only a few well marked peculiar genera, a large number of well 

 characterized species belonging to genera not peculiar to the island, a still larger 

 number of less well characterized species, local races or "subspecies", others 

 which only very close observers believe they can discriminate ; while the rest are 

 by common consent termed absolutely identical with the indi\iduals of their 

 kind in the neighbouring lands. Islands like New Caledonia and Fiji have in 

 proportion to their size quite as much that is peculiar about them , as has 

 Celebes. The chief interest in the latter depends upon its intermediate position 

 between Asia and Austi'alia, the faunas of which are so vastly different. 



•37 0«^ 



