146 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE 



[chap. IX. 



tliey actually have a tradiliou of tlic catastroplie which 

 broke them ftsuuder, aud fix its dat« at not much inoi-e 

 than a thousand years Rgo* It becomes interesting, theie- 

 fore, to see what support is fjiveii to tliis view by tlte 

 comparif=on of their animal ]irod notions. 



The Maininalia havo not been collected with sufficient 

 completeness in botli islands to make a general comparison 

 of much value, find so many species have been olitained 

 only as live specimens in captivity, that their locality has 

 nft«n been erroneously given, — the island in vvliich they 

 were obtained being substituted for tbat from which they 

 originaiiy came. Taking into consideration only those 

 whose distribution is more accurately known, we learn that 

 Sumatra is, in a zoological sense, more nearly related to 

 Borneo than it is to Java. The great man-like apes, the 

 elephant, the tapir, aud the Malay bear, are all common to 

 the two former countries, while they are absent from the 

 latter. Of the three long-tailed nujnkeya (Semnopithecus) 

 inhabiting Sumatra, one extends into liorneo, but the two 

 species of Java are both peculiar to it. So also the great 

 Malay deer (Kusa equina], and the small Tnigvdus kanchil, 

 are common to Sumatra and Borneo, but do not extend into 

 Java, where they are replaced by Tragulns j a van ions. The 

 tiuer, it is true, is found in Sumatra and Java, but not in 

 Borneo. But as this animal is known to swim well, it 

 may have foimd its way across the Stmits of Siinda, or it 

 may have inhabited Java before it Wiis separated liom the 

 mam land, and from some unknown cause have ceased to 

 exist in Borneo, 



In Ornithology thei*e is a little uncertainty owing to the 

 birds of Java and Sumatra being much better known tbati 

 those of Borneo ; but tlie ancient separation of Java aij an 

 island, is weU exhibited by the large number of its species 

 which are not found in any of the other islands, \i 

 possesses no leas than seven pigeons peculiar to itseli^ whUe 

 Sumatra has only one. Of its two parrots one extends 

 into Borneo, but neither into Sumatra. Of the htteen 

 species of woodpeckers inhabiting Sumutia only lour reach 

 Java, while eight of them are found in Borneo and twelve 

 in the Malay peiiinsitla. The two Trogons found in Java 

 ai"6 peculiar to it, while of those inhabiting Sumatra at 



