420 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. . [part hi. 



Taking all the facts into consideration, I would suggest as the 

 most probable explanation, that if the Moluccas ever formed part 

 of the main Papuan land, they were separated at an early date, 

 and subsequently so greatly submerged as to destroy a large 

 proportion of their fauna. They have since risen, and have 

 probably been larger than at present, and rather more closely 

 approximated to the parent land, whence they received ' a con- 

 siderable immigration of such animals as were adapted to cross 

 narrow seas. This gave them several Papuan forms, but still 

 left them without a number of the types more especially con- 

 fined to the forest depths, or powerful enough to combat the 

 gales which often blow weaker flyers out to sea. Most of the 

 birds whose absence from the Moluccas is so conspicuous belong 

 to one or other of these classes. 



Among the most characteristic birds of the Moluccas are the 

 handsome crimson lories of the genera Lorius and Eos. These 

 are found in every island (but not in Celebes or the Timor 

 group) ; and a fine species of Eos, peculiar to the small islands of 

 Siau and Sanguir, just north of Celebes, obliges us to place 

 these with the Moluccas instead of with the former island, to 

 which they seem most naturally to belong. The crimson parrots 

 of the genus Edectus are almost equally characteristic of the 

 Moluccas, and add greatly to the brilliancy of the ornithology of 

 these favoured islands. 



Reptiles. — The Eeptiles, so far as known, appear to agree in 

 their distribution with the other vertebrates. In some small 

 collections from Ceram there were no less than six of the genera 

 peculiar to the Australian region, and which were before only 

 known from Australia itself. These are, of snakes, Liasis and 

 Enygrus, genera of Pythonidae ; with Diemenia and AcanthopMs 

 (Elapidae) ; of lizards, Cyclodus, a genus of Scincidae ; and of 

 Amphibia, a tree-frog of the genus Pelodryas. 



Insects — Peculiarities of the Moluccan Fauna. — In insects the 

 Moluccas are hardly, if at all, inferior to New Guinea itself. The 

 islands abound in grand Papilios of the largest size and extreme 

 beauty ; and it is a very remarkable fact, that when the closely- 

 allied species of the Moluccas and New Guinea are compared, 



