No. 537] ZOOCEOGHM'llY OF THE EAST EX/>IE> 



tors laid more stress upon the amphibians, then an en- 

 tirely different result would have boon arrived at: New 

 Guinea possesses here again 39 species which belong to 

 Indian families as against 24 Australian.' 2 Among other 

 groups of animals New Guinea is more Indian than Aus- 

 tralian. This is the case witli the scorpions and the earth- 

 worms. 



New Guinea, then, has a mixed fauna, whereof the 

 Australian elements are explained by the existence of a 

 now broken connection with Australia ; and whereof the 

 Indian elements evidently arrived from the Moluccas. 

 The Sarasins have constructed, in explanation of this, 

 two bridges, one of which connected Xew Guinea with 

 Halmahera — the Xew Guinea bridge of Kuckcnthal 

 (1903) ; the other, with Ceram. The Aru and Ke islands 

 range themselves along with Xew Guinea. Upon both, 

 for instance, we find a true kangaroo, Macropus brunii 



of New Guinea. The Aru Islands possess a fresh-water 

 fish of the family Melanot;eniida\ the remaining mem- 

 bers of which are confined to Australia and Xew Guinea 



cassowaries, as well as^among amphibians and other 

 groups. One can, therefore, take it for granted that at 

 the same time as New Guinea both of these two island 

 groups were united with Australia, although the Ke Is- 

 lands are cut off by a greater depth of sea. 



From the already mentioned faunistic difference be- 

 tween Celebes and New Guinea, it follows that for many 

 families and genera of animals both the westerly as well 

 as the easterly boundaries must lie in the Moluccas. 



line which would exactly lit each special case. But here 

 we are hindered further by the fact that just these is- 



