ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi. 



the Malay peninsula, it is not likely that many of these well 

 marked forms will be discovered in these countries. 



There are also a considerable number of species of birds 

 common to IMalacca, Sumatra, and Borneo, but represented in 

 Java by distinct though closely allied species. Such are, — 



Venilia malaccensis (represented in Java by) F. miniata. 



JJrymocataphus nigrocaintatus „ ,, D. capistraius. 



Malacopteron coronatum „ ,, M. nififrons. 



Irena cyanea ,, ,, I. iurcosa. 



Ploceus baya „ „ P. hypoxantlia. 



Loriculus galgulus „ „ L. pusillus. 



rtilopus jambu „ „ P. poiyhyreus. 



Kow if we look at our map of the region, and consider the 

 position of Java with regard to Borneo, Sumatra, and tlie Indo- 

 Chinese peninsula, the facts just pointed out appear most 

 anomalous and perplexing. First, we have Java and Sumatra 

 forming one continuous hue of volcanoes, separated by a very 

 narrow strait, and with all the appearance of having formed one 

 continuous land ; yet their productions differ considerably, and 

 those of Sumatra show the closest resemblance to those of 

 Borneo, an island ten times further off than Java and differing 

 widely in the absence of volcanoes or any continuous range of 

 lofty mountains. Then again, not only does Java dilfer from 

 these two, but it agrees with a country beyond them both — 

 a country from which they seem to have a much better chance 

 to have been supplied by immigration than Java has, and to 

 have (ahnost necessarily) participated, even more largely, in the 

 benefits of any means of transmission capable of reaching the 

 latter island. Yet more ; whatever changes have occurred to 

 brin" about the anomalous state of things that exists must have 

 been, zoologically and geologically, recent ; for the strange cross- 

 affinities between Java and the Indo-Chinese continent (in 

 which Sumatra and Borneo have not participated), as well as 

 that between Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo (in which Java has 

 not participated) are exhibited, in many cases by community of 

 species, in others by the presence of very closely allied forms 

 of the same genera, of mammalia and birds. Now we know that 



