336 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. l ^rt hi. 



great islands were recently united to the continent, and that 

 their separation took place by one general subsidence of the 

 whole. It is more consonant with what we know of such mat- 

 ters, that the elevations and depressions were partial, varying 

 in their points of action and often recurring ; sometimes ex- 

 tending one part of an island, sometimes another ; now joining 

 an island to the main land, now bringing two islands into closer 

 proximity. There is reason to believe that sometimes an inter- 

 vening island has sunk or receded and allowed others which it 

 before separated to effect a partial union independently of it. If 

 we recognise the probability that such varied and often-renewed 

 changes of level have occurred, we shall be better able to under- 

 stand how certain anomalies of distribution in these islands may 

 have been brought about. We will now endeavour to sketch the 

 general features of the zoology of this interesting district, and 

 then proceed to discuss some of the relations of the islands to 

 each other. 



Mammalia. — We have seen that the Indo-Chinese sub-region 

 possesses 13 species of mammalia in common with the Indo- 

 Malay sub-region, and 4 others peculiar to itself, besides one 

 Ethiopian and several Oriental and Palsearctic forms of wide 

 range. Of this latter class the Malay islands have compara- 

 tively few, but they possess no less than 14 peculiar genera, viz. 

 Simia, Siamanga, Tarsius, Galcopithecus, Hylomys, Ptilocerns, 

 Gymnura, Cynogale, Hemigalea, Arctogale, Barangia, My dans, 

 Hdarctos, and Tapirus. The islands also possess tigers, deer, 

 wild pigs, wild cattle, elephants, the scaly ant-eater, and most 

 of the usual Oriental genera ; so that they are on the whole 

 fully as rich as, if not richer than, any part of Asia ; a fact very 

 unusual in island faunas, and very suggestive of their really 

 continental nature. 



Plate VIII. Scene in Borneo with Characteristic Malayan 

 Quadrupeds. — The Malayan fauna is so rich and peculiar that 

 we devote two plates to illustrate it. We have here a group of 

 mammalia, such as might be seen together in the vast forests of 

 Borneo. In the foreground we have the beautiful deer-like 

 Chevrotain [Tragulus javanicus). These are delicate little 



