396 



NATURAL HISTORY 



Beventy-eigTit genera in which the Mohiccan land -birds 

 may be classed, no lass than seventy are characteristic of 

 New Guinea, while only six belong specially to the Indo- 

 Malay islands. Bnt tliis close resemblance to New Guinea 

 genera does not extend to the species, for no less than 140 

 out of the 195 land-birds are peculiar to the Molnccan 

 islandsj while 32 are found also in New Guinea, and 15 

 in the Tndo-Malay islands. These facts teach us, that 

 though the birds of this group have evidently been derived 

 mainly fToni New Guinea, yet the immigration has not 

 been a recent one, since there has been time for the {,Teater 

 portion of the species to have become changed. We fiud, 

 also,, that many very characteristic New Guinea forms 

 have not entered the Moluccas at all, while others found 

 in Ceram and Gilolo do not extend so far west as Boiiru. 

 ConsiderinfT, further, the absence of most of the New Guinea 

 mammals from the Moluccas, we are led to the conclusion 

 that these islands are not fragments which have been 

 separated from New Guinea, but form a distinct insular 

 region, which has been upheaved independently at .n 

 rather remote epoch, and during all the mutations it has 

 imdergone has been constantly receiAong immigrants from 

 that great and productive island. The considerable 

 length of time the Moluccas have remained isolated is 

 furllier indicated by the occurrcDce of two pecidiar genera 

 of birds, Semioptera and Lycocorax, wliicb are found 

 nowhere else. 



We are able to divide this small archipelago into two 

 well-marked gioups — that of Ceram, including also Bourn, 

 Amboyna, Banda, and Ku ; and that of Gilolo, including 

 Morty, Hatchian, Obi, Ternate, and other small islands. 

 These divisions have each a considerable number of pecu- 

 liar species, no less than fd'ty-five being found in the 

 Ceram gi'oup only ; aud besides this, most of the separate 

 islands have some species peculiar to tliemselves. Thus 

 Morty island baa a peculiar kingfisher, honey sucker, and 

 Btarling;, Ternate has a ground-tbrush (Pitta) and a ily- 

 catcher; Banda has a pigeon, a shrike, and a I'itta; K<S 

 tias two flycatchers, a Zosterops, a shrike, a king-crow, 

 and a cuckoo; and the remote Tunor-laut, which should 

 probably come into tlie Moluccau gi'oup, has a cockatoo 



