140 NATURAL HISTORY [chap, xxvii. 



from it, and it is an animal very restless and untameable, 

 and therefore likely to escape. This view is rendered still 

 more probable by what Antonio de Morga tells ns was 

 the custom in the Philippines in 1602. He says that "the 

 natives of Mindanao carry about civet-cats in cages, and 

 sell them in the islands ; and they take the civet from 

 them, and let them go again." The same species is 

 common in the Philippines and in all the large islands 

 of the Indo-Malay region. 



The only Moluccan ruminant is a deer, which was once 

 supposed to be a distinct species, but is now generally 

 considered to be a slight variety of the Eusa hippelaphus 

 of Java. Deer are often tamed and petted, and their flesh 

 is so much esteemed by all Malays, that it is very natural 

 they should endeavour to introduce them into the remote 

 islands in which they settled, and whose luxuriant forests 

 seem so well adapted for their subsistence. 



The strange babirusa of Celebes is also found in Bourn, 

 but in no other Moluccan island, and it is somewhat diffi- 

 cult to imagine how it got there. It is true that there is 

 some approximation between the birds of the Sula Islands 

 (where the babirusa is also found) and those of Bouru, 

 which seems to indicate that these islands have recently 

 been closer together, or that some intervening land has 

 disappeared. At this time the babirusa may have entered 

 Bouru, since it probably swims as well as its allies the 



