chap, xiv.] OF THE TIMOR GROUP. 325 



Timorese group is indicated as well by the forms which 

 are absent from it as by those which it contains, and is by 

 this kind of evidence shown to be much more Australian 

 than Indian. No less than twenty-nine genera, all more 

 or less abundant in Java, and most of which range over a 

 wide area, are altogether absent ; while of the equally 

 diffused Australian genera only about fourteen are want- 

 ing. This would clearly indicate that there has been, till 

 recently, a wide separation from Java ; and the fact that 

 the islands of Bali and Lombock are small, and are almost 

 wholly volcanic, and contain a smaller number of modified 

 forms than the other islands, would point them out as of 

 comparatively recent origin. A wide arm of the sea pro- 

 bably occupied their place at the time when Timor was in 

 the closest proximity to Australia ; and as the subterranean 

 fires were slowly piling up the now fertile islands of Bali 

 and Lombock, the northern shores of Australia would be 

 sinking beneath the ocean. Some such changes as have 

 been here indicated, enable us to understand how it 

 happens, that though the birds of this group are on the 

 whole almost as much Indian as Australian, yet the species 

 which are peculiar to the group are mostly Australian in 

 character ; and also why such a large number of common 

 Indian forms which extend through Java to Bali, should 

 not have transmitted a single representative to the islands 

 further ea,st. 



