chap, xiii.] THE AUSTRALIAN REGION. 425 



with Australia was probably earlier than that with Java ; since 

 the majority of the Australian species have become modified, 

 while the majority of the Oriental species have remained un- 

 changed. This is due, no doubt, in part to the continued im- 

 migration of fresh individuals from Java, after that from Australia, 

 the Moluccas and New Guinea had almost wholly ceased. We 

 must also notice the very small proportion of the genera, either 

 of Australia or Java, that have found their way into these islands, 

 many of the largest and most wide-spread groups in both coun- 

 tries being altogether absent. Taking these facts into considera- 

 tion, it is pretty clear that there has been no close and long- 

 continued approximation of these islands to any part of the 

 Australian region ; and it is also probable that they were fairly 

 stocked with such Australian groups as they possess before the 

 immigration from Java commenced, or a larger number of cha- 

 racteristic Oriental forms would have been able to have estab- 

 lished themselves. 



On looking at our map, we find that a shallow submerged bank 

 extends from Australia to within about twenty miles of the coast 

 of Timor; and this is probably an indication that the two 

 countries were once only so far apart. This would have allowed 

 the purely Australian types to enter, as they are not numerous; 

 there being about 6 Australian species, and 10 or 12 representa- 

 tives of Australian species, in Timor. All the rest may have been 

 derived from the Moluccas or New Guinea, being mostly wide- 

 spread genera of the Australian region ; and the extension of 

 Papua in a south-west direction towards Java (which was sug- 

 gested as a means of providing New Guinea with peculiar Indo- 

 Malay types not found in any other part of the region) may 

 have probably served to supply Timor and Flores with the mass 

 of their Austro-Malayan genera across a narrow strait or arm of 

 the sea. Lombok, Baly, and Sumbawa were probably not then 

 in existence, or nothing more than small volcanic cones rising 

 out of the sea, thus leaving a distance of 300 miles between 

 Flores and Java. Subsequently they grew into islands, which 

 offered an easy passage for a number of Indo-Malay genera 

 into such scantily stocked territories as Flores and Timor. The 



Vol. I.— 29 



