328 NATURAL HISTORY [chap.xiv 



a country so different in climate and vegetation as is 

 Timor from the Moluccas. I have not mentioned horses, 

 which are often thought to he wild in Timor, because 

 there are no grounds whatever for such a helief. The Timor 

 ponies have every one an owner, and are quite as much 

 domesticated animals as the cattle on a South American 

 hacienda. 



I have dwelt at some length on the origin of the 

 Timorese fauna, because it appears to me a most interest- 

 ing and instructive problem. It is very seldom that we 

 can trace the animals of a district so clearly as we can 

 in this case, to two definite sources ; and still more rarely 

 that they furnish such decisive evidence, of the time, and 

 the manner, and the proportions of their introduction. 

 We have here a group of Oceanic Islands in miniature — 

 islands which have never formed part of the adjacent 

 lands, although so closely approaching them ; and their 

 productions have the characteristics of true Oceanic Islands 

 slightly modified. These characteristics are, the absence 

 of all Mammalia except bats, and the occurrence of 

 peculiar species of birds, insects, and land shells, which, 

 though found nowhere else, are plainly related to those 

 of the nearest land. Thus, we have an entire absence of 

 Australian mammals, and the presence of only a feAv strag- 

 glers from the west, which can be accounted for in the 

 manner already indicated. Bats are tolerably abundant. 



