98 



MAMMALS. 



(arboreal) ; two civet cats and two Paradoxuri, allied animals, which, like most of the cat tribe, are 

 at least good climbers, and so may be regarded as arboreal ; one dog, which may have been 

 introduced by man, and afterwards become wild ; eleven squirrels and flying squirrels (arboreal) ; 

 one porcujnnc ; one manis (arboreal) ; one elephant (introduced and disputed as aboriginal) ; one 

 rhinoceros (disputed) ; one tapir (disputed and half amphibious) ; one sow (possibly introduced and 

 degenerated into a wild variety) ; one mvisk deer ; three small deer, and one ox (probably introduced). 



We have here eighty-two species, of which sixty-six are arboreal, and four amphibious, leaving 

 only ten terrestrial animals, of which two are disputed, and four probably introduced, so that there 

 remain only four small deer, a porcupine, and a shrew, which can be said not be to independent of actual 

 dry land. Deducting the doubtfid (disputed or introduced) species, we have thus only to account for 

 the presence of six small animals, four of which have the lightest tread for their size of any order of 

 animals, and might be able to skip over quaking bogs or shaking swamps which would not support 

 heavier creatures, and none of which would require any great space of solid land for their 

 preservation. It is different with the large Pachyderms, the elephant, rhinoceros, and tapir. If 

 these really did exist there, large tracts of country would be required for their sustenance, and 

 my hypothesis would have its feet knocked from under it. But their presence is disputed or capable 

 of explanation. It is not, indeed, disputed that the Indian elephant is now found there, but it is 

 known to have been introduced, and it is more than doubtful whether it was ever aboriginal, and 

 the same doubt extends both to the rhinoceros and the tapir. The arguments for and against their 

 aboriginal existence in Borneo, &c., will be found in the chapter which treats of the distribution of 

 these animals. The sow is the only one of the larger animals which is not recorded as being found 

 in some of the neiglibouring islands, and this in itself is an argument for its being a wild variety of 

 the domestic kind, which may have been introduced, especially as, with two exceptions, the different 

 species of sow described as found in the vaiious islands of the Indian Archipelago may all be 

 varieties of one species descended from escaped individuals of the domestic sow of these countries. 



The inquiry suggests a comparison of the proportion between the arboreal and terrestrial 

 species of Borneo with that of the neighbouring islands, as well as the mainland of India, but 

 as these countries also may have originally undergone something of the same phase which I suppose 

 Borneo to have passed through before it acquired its present form, a further comparison with some 

 other countries which are not liable to this objection is necessary to obtain a fair view of the 

 relative character of their inhabitants. The following table shows this approximatively : — 



