anAP. xxvii.] OF THE MOLUCCAS. 



395 



able to exterminate them. Tbe figure represents Cusciis 

 ornatus, a row species discovered by mo iii Batcbiaii, aud 

 whicli also inliabits Ternatc. It is pecuUar to the ]\Ioluccas, 

 wbile the two other species which inhabit Cerani are found 

 also in New Guinea and Waigiou, 



In place of the excessive jjoverty of mammals which 

 characterises the Jfoluceas, we have a veiy rich display of 

 the feathered tri1)es. The number of species of birds at 

 present known fram the various islands of the Moluccan 

 group is 265, but of these only 70 belong to the usually 

 abundant tribes of the waders and swimmers, indicating 

 that these are very imperfectly known. As they are also 

 pi*e-eminently wanderers, and are thus little fitted for illus- 

 trating the gcograpbical distribution of life in a limited 

 area, we vAW. here leave them out of consideration and 

 confine our attention only to the 195 land birds. 



Wlien wo consider that aU Europe, with its varied 

 climate and vegetation, with every mile of its sm-hice 

 exploi-ed, and with the immense extent of temperate Asia 

 and Alrica, which serve as storehouses, from which it is 

 continually recruited, only supports 257 species of land 

 birds as residents or regular immigrants, we must look 

 upon the numbers already procured in the small and com- 

 paratively unknown islands of the Moluccas as indicating 

 a fauna of fuDy average richness in tliis department. But 

 when we come to examine tbe family groups wbicb go to 

 make up this number, we find the most curious deficiencies 

 in some, balanced by equally striking redundancy in othei"S. 

 Thus if we compare the birds of tbe Moluccas with those 

 of India, as given in ilr, Jerdon's work, we find that the 

 three groups of the parrots, kingfishers, and pigeons, form 

 neatly one-ihird of the whole land-birds in the former, 

 while they amount to only one-tweniictk in the latter 

 country. On the other hand, such wide-spi-ead groiii>s as 

 the thiustiea, warblers, and finches, which in India form 

 nearly one-third of all tbe land-birds, dwindle down in the 

 Moluccas to one- fourteenth. 



The reason of these peculiarities appears to be, that tlie 

 JIuluccan iauna has been almost entirely derived from 

 that of New Guinea, in which country the same deficiency 

 and tlic same luxuriance is to be observed. Out of the 



