THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 43 



In Spite of this richness there are many very important 

 genera found in all the other Malay islands which are 

 wanting in the archipelago. This isolation is further 

 marked by the fact that more than two-thirds of the 

 Philippine species are peculiar to the group, and that 

 they include such birds as cockatoos and mound-builders 

 {Megajjodius), which are essentially typical of the 

 Moluccas and the other eastern islands. Similarly the 

 preponderance of parrots and pigeons points out a strong 

 eastern connection, and although woodpeckers — a group 

 characteristic of the western regions — are rather 

 numerous, no pheasants exist, except upon Palawan, 

 an island which, as has already been shown, is so con- 

 clusively Bornean, that it should not be taken into 

 consideration in discussing the geological history of the 

 Philippine Archipelago. The only game birds found in 

 the islands are the common jungle fowl {Gallics banldra) 

 and one or two small quail. 



Of the other vertebrates little is known. There are 

 crocodiles, lizards, and snakes in abundance, and among 

 the latter are pythons, which destroy young cattle, and" 

 are said in some cases to exceed 40 feet in length. In- 

 sects are abundant and of great beauty. As in the case 

 of the birds, mammals, and plants, they differ in many 

 respects from those of the other Malay islands, and show 

 in ■ numerous instances an affinity with those of the 

 eastern islands. 



Instructive as is the distribution of all the foregoing 

 classes of the animal kingdom in the archipelago, the 

 land moUusca yield to none in interest, both in them- 

 selves and in their relation to those of the neighbouring 

 islands. Pre-eminent among them is the group known 

 as Cochlostyla, a genus of large and handsome snails with 

 affinities both with Helix and Bnlimus. This group, of 



