Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago. 371 



its extension on to the continent may probably not have been 

 of very ancient date. Indeed we have so many instances of 

 the larger animals multiplying rapidly and becoming thoroughly 

 acclimatized in countries very remote from their original home 

 and often differing very widely from it in physical conditions, 

 that I should be inclined to think that in this case, as in 

 many others, the distribution of species has been modified by 

 the agency of man. From a very remote date there must 

 have been communication between Java and India, since the 

 Hindoo religion had been established in the island for an 

 unknown period when it was subverted by Mahommedanism 

 in the fifteenth century ; and it is highly probable that a bird 

 so beautiful, and so easily caught and preserved, as the 

 Chalcophaps javanica, should have been often carried to the 

 continent, where a few escaping would soon stock a wide 

 extent of country. The fact of this being the only Ground- 

 Dove in all India, and that it so closely resembles the Javan 

 bird that great doubts are entertained of its specific distinct- 

 ness, renders the supposition of its recent introduction highly 

 probable, since, in most other cases, the species of Java and 

 those of India offer well-marked differences. 



If we now turn from the consideration of the separate 

 families, genera, and species to the distribution of the Pigeons 

 as a whole, we shall discover facts not less interesting. The 

 total number of Pigeons now known to exist is about three 

 hundred, or perhaps a few more; and of these the Malay 

 Archipelago possesses no less than one hundred and eighteen. 

 This number will seem especially large if we compare it with 

 that representing the species of Pigeons in other countries. 

 According to Jerdon^s work on the Birds of India, only 

 twenty-eight Pigeons are found in that country, exclusive of 

 Ceylon and the countries east of the bay of Bengal. Aus- 

 tralia possesses twenty-three species, Africa less than forty, 

 while the vast continent of America has not more than eighty 

 of these beautiful birds. These numbers show that the Malay 

 Archipelago is preeminently the metropolis of the Pigeon tribe. 

 It is now well known, however, that this part of the world 

 belongs to two distinct zoological regions — the Indian and the 



