THE IBIS. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. IV. OCTOBER 1865. 



XXXII. — On the Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago. By 

 Alfred B. Wallace, F.Z.S., &c. 



(Plate IX.) 



The two most remarkable and most isolated groups of fruit- 

 eating birds — the Parrots and the Pigeons — attain their maxi- 

 mum development, as regards beauty, variety, and number of 

 species, in the same limited district, of which the great island 

 of New Guinea forms the centre, and which I have proposed to 

 call the Austro- Malayan sub region. It extends from the island 

 of Celebes on the west to the Solomon Islands on the east, and 

 includes the Moluccan and Timor groups. Its actual land-area 

 is less than one-sixth that of Europe, yet it contains more than 

 one-fourth of all the species of Pigeons that are known to exist. 

 The islands west of Celebes, as far as Malacca and the Nicobar 

 Islands and including the Philippines, are also rather rich in this 

 family of birds. They form the Indo-Malayan subregion ; and 

 by combining the two we have in the Malay Archipelago con- 

 siderably more than one-third of all the Pigeons that inhabit the 

 earth. We can only vaguely speculate on the causes that have 

 led to this peculiar distribution, since it would seem, at first 

 sight, that the forests of Africa, of India, and especially of 

 South America, would be equally well adapted to the develop- 

 ment and support of these beautiful birds ; and the fact that 

 N. S. VOL. I. 2d 



