No. 537] ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF THE EAST INDIES 555 



portion of Celebes only: as is also that remarkable bird 

 Mef/apofl'ms cumiiitjt, as well as some others. 



Another point emphasized is the fact that the molluscs 

 of the different peninsulas of Celebes show closest rela- 

 tionship with the island lying' near them. The Sarasins 

 found among the groups of animals which they studied 

 that the species which, have survived and which have be- 

 come peculiar now to Celebes, as well as those which 

 have a wider spread at the present time through the 

 archipelago, show in part a relationship to specie- from 

 Java, in part to those from the Philippines, or from the 

 Moluccas, or again from the Lesser Sunda Islands, espe- 

 cially Mores. The proportion of these four components 

 of the fauna of Celebes is about the relationship of 

 4:3:2:1. Here again is emphasized the overwhelmingly 

 Indian characters of Celebes, since alone among these 

 last two mentioned smaller groups no Australian species 

 have been found. A close relationship with Borneo is, 

 as we have mentioned previously, entirely non-existent. 



The explanation of the Sarasins is this. Celebes rose 

 from the sea in Eocene times, and in Pliocene times es- 

 pecially received its fauna along four land bridges, each 

 of which connected the island with one of the previously 



these bridges is still traceable through submarine shal- 

 lows, or else by groups or chains of islets. The Java 

 bridge ran from the southern peninsula out through 

 what are now Postilion, Paternoster and Kangean Is- 

 lands, to eastern Java. The Philippine bridge bound 

 the northern peninsula with Mindanao, and included the 

 present Sangi and Talaut groups. The Moluccan bridge 

 went off from the eastern peninsula; and united together 

 the Peling and Sula Islands, and apparently then split 

 up into two bridges, one of which ran off to the Obi and 

 Halmahera groups, the other to Buru. This last connec- 

 tion is postulated by the geographic distribution of the 

 Babirusa, and also by the birds. The latter, from the 

 mountains of Buru, show a close relationship with 

 Celebes. However, during the expedition of the Siboga, 



