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THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE TRIBE TROIDES. 



PART II. 



Stretching away from about 4 8' of South Latitude, where the most Southern point of Borneo (the 2nd largest 

 island in the world) commences, to about 18 35' North Latitude, (where we find the Babuyan Islands) extends a mass 

 of more or less interrupted land, which, from its appearance must, at some period of the earth's past history, have been 

 a large continent at least 1,440 miles in length, and quite 600 miles wide at its widest from West to East. It is 

 possible that it may have been double that width, for its most westerly point commences at about 109 East Longi- 

 tude, near the Burong Isles on the West Coast of Sarawak, and its most easterly, about 130 30' East Longitude on 

 the East Coast of the island of Mindanao. This (now theoretical) area of land includes the immense island of Borneo on 

 the West side, the Balabac Straits and islets, the peninsula-like island Palawan, and its offshoots Kalamon, Busuango, 

 Koron Islets, Mindoro Straits and Mindoro, Lubang and the West Coast of the large Philippine Island of Luzon, of 

 which Manilla is the chief port, and the Babuyan Islands ; while on the East we have Borneo, the Sulu Archipelago 

 curving away farther and farther eastward, then with an inclination north-west to Samar, still westing more and 

 more till the Philippines again terminate on the East Coast of Luzon at its most northerly point. In other words this 

 area includes the whole of Borneo, the Sulu Sea and Archipelago, and the Philippines. 



This is one of the richest zoological regions on the globe, and its productions are almost incalculable in 

 number. The land shells of the Philippine Islands number probably nearly 400 species and 12 genera, generally large 

 and beautiful ; the fluviatile species found by the late Hugh Cuming were more than 100. Borneo must supply 

 over fifty species of land shells belonging to at least 9 genera, besides multitudes of fresh water univalves and bivalves — 

 besides these, there are also the productions of the Sulu Archipelago. The Coleoptera of the Philippines, though 

 perhaps not so large as some of those of Borneo, furnish us with many beautiful things, notably the glorious species of 

 Pachyrinchidce, most of them like living jewels. The birds are sufficiently numerous, and among their number are many 

 most beautiful species. The same may be said of Borneo. 



Among the numerous lepidoptera of this immense region the Ornithoptera are well represented, though perhaps not 

 quite so well as in the New Guinea regions. In Borneo we have Amphrysus and its varieties Rufi- and Flavicollis, 

 Rhadamantus {or Nephereus), which is a native of Mindoro, Mindanao, and Luzon ; Plateni in Palawan, also Magellamis 

 in Luzon, East Mindanao, Babuyanes, Polillo ; T. Brookeana at Sarawak in West Borneo, Kina Balu, North Borneo, 

 &c; T. Trojana, a still more beautiful representative of the genus, is peculiar to Palawan ; P. Helena, v. celebensis is 

 found in Borneo; P. Miranda in Sarawak and Sandakan, (North Borneo); P. Andromache at Kina Balu and P. Cerberus 

 in the Natuna Islands. 



With respect to Borneo, its northern portion appears to be the richest in Ornithoptera, of which two Genera 

 are found. This area of the island is about 24,000 square miles in extent, completely surrounded by the sea except to 

 the south and west. The coast line is extremely irregular, over 600 miles in length, with several good harbours. The 

 Kina River is navigable for a distance of 200 miles by large steam launches. Kina Balu, or the Chinese Widow, rich 

 in butterflies, many of them very fine species, is 13,700 feet high, and belongs to a mountain range which extends south 

 westerly, with few interruptions, to about i° o' north latitude, where its height is from 3,000 to 4,000 feet at Batang 

 Lupar. The north-west headland at the north extremity of the island consists of the red sandstone cliffs of Pulu 

 Balhalla, which rise perpendicularly to a height of 600 feet or more. In their many caverns the nests of Collocalia 

 Linchii, the edible Swallow, are abundant. Behind this cliff, however, low flat land stretches in every direction, and 

 indeed probably down the west side of the island parrallel to the long mountain range spoken of above, and also along 

 the coast to Sandakan Harbour in Labuk Bay, and eastward to Labuk. Elopura is on the north-west shore 

 of the bay, and the harbour has an entrance 1 mile wide, varying in breath from 3 to 10 miles along its 

 16 miles of length. The river Sigalind is a large one debouching at the head of the bay, 16 miles from 

 Elopura, and winding west and north-west, lined for miles with mangroves, followed by Nipa Palms, the huge 

 forest trees, and tangle of vegetation rising to the height of 200 feet on each side of the river, which narrrows more and more 

 to its source. Many of the trees are 150 feet high, their summits merging in those of others by dense masses of creepers, 

 which spring from the branches and overwhelm them ; the roots of the trees are strengthened by buttresses smooth and flat 

 of corresponding size, which support the stem for 30 feet from the ground. High up in the branches the bird's nest 

 fern Neottopteris sp., Elk's Horn Fern, Platycerium sp. and orchids abound : and also the cobalt-blue Irena, Fruit-eating 

 Pigeons, Hornbills, the Racquet-tailed Drongo shrike, Dicrurus brachypterus, [a member of the dicrurince or double tailed 

 birds, which is not a shrike at all, but a Wood or Forest Swallow, (a beautiful group of moderate sized birds spread 

 over a large portion of the globe, from India and the eastern islands to Australia)] , is also found. This species is blue 

 black, with a head crest which bends back over the neck, and the two outer tail feathers, more than twice the length of 

 the others, are naked throughout the greater part of their length, or from 12 to 14 inches, then again webbed so as to form 

 a spatulous terminal — each of the feathers from its naked portion describing a most graceful curve. 



Sarawak, another part of Borneo, where fine Ornithoptera abound, situated i° 40' North Latitude, and about 109 

 50' of East Longitude, is at the Northern portion of the island on the west side, which bulges out very much westward, 



