282 _ THE ANIMALS OF NEW GUINEA 



The first member of the group discovered by Europeans was the Ceram 

 cassowary, a specimen of which was presented in December 1596 to the captain of 

 the Dutch ship Amsterdam when anchored at Sydayo, Java, where the bird had 

 been sent from Banda. Despite the subsequent burning and abandonment of the 

 Amsterdam, the wonderful " large fowl " was eventually taken home in another 

 vessel to Holland, where it was exhibited to an admiring public the following year. 

 But it was not till 1726 that the true habitat of the species was made known, 

 although certain Dutchmen are stated to have captured a specimen while on its 

 nest in Ceram so long ago as the year 1660. Although by no means rare, the 

 Ceram cassowary is such a shy and retiring bird that no European appears ever 

 to have beheld it in the wild state. The New Britain moruk, on the other hand, 

 is a species of far less timid disposition, which can be tamed without much 

 difficulty. 



Lower The reptiles, amphibians, and fishes of the Papuan province are 



vertebrates. } n general allied to those of Australia, although in certain instances 

 they display more decided Malay affinities. The most noteworthy reptile is a 

 large fresh-water tortoise, Carettochelys insculpta, from the Fly River, New Guinea, 

 probably belonging to the side-necked section, but representing by itself a genus 

 and family of which the affinities are not yet fully known. Lizards of the skink 

 group (Scincidce) are numerous, although they apparently include no generic types 

 restricted to the area ; there is, however, the genus Dibamus, the sole representative 

 of the allied family Dibamidce, with one species, D. novce-guinece, in New Guinea, 

 the Moluccas, and Celebes, and a second, D. nicobaricus, in the Nicobar Islands. 

 There are certain frogs, Batrachopsis melanopyga and Asterojihys turpicola, repre- 

 senting by themselves generic types restricted to New Guinea. It may be added 

 that the Solomon Islands are the home of a frog, Rana guppyi, second only in 

 size to the gigantic Cameruns species referred to in an earlier chapter. 



Some of the features of the land-snail fauna of the Papuan 

 Invertebrates. . . 



province have been already mentioned m the chapter on the animals 



of Australia, where special reference is made to the general community of type 



between the land-molluscs of north-eastern Australia and the province now under 



consideration. New Guinea itself, like the Aru Islands and several of the islands 



of Melanesia, is remarkable for the abundance of its snails, although slugs seem 



to be represented only by a species of Vaginula, a genus allied to the agate-snails 



but representing by itself a distinct family. Of the numerous genera of snails 



more or less nearly restricted to New Guinea may be mentioned Papuina and 



Insularia, the latter of which is entirely confined to Papua proper ; other genera, 



such as Cklorites and Planispira, are common to New Guinea and the Moluccas, 



while yet others (Pedinogyra and Hadra) are shared by the former country and 



tropical Queensland. Some of the largest and handsomest members of the Helix 



group are found in the teeming forests of New Guinea, where, however, operculated 



snails are rare, the genus Cyclojmorus being entirely lacking. Some years ago 



no less than fifty-two genera of land and fresh-water molluscs (of which Papuina 



was represented by thirty-five species) were known from New Guinea alone, and 



it may be that the number has been increased since that date. The Aru Islands 



are closely related in their mollusca as well as in their other faunas to the 



