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ISLAND LIFE 



PART II 



Java. 



The rich and beautiful island of Java, interesting alike 

 to the politician, the geographer, and the naturalist, is 

 more especially attractive to the student of geographical 

 distribution, because it furnishes him with some of the 

 most curious anomalies and difficult problems in a place 

 where such would be least expected. As Java forms 

 with Sumatra one almost unbroken line of volcanoes and 

 volcanic mountains, interrupted only by the narrow Straits 

 of Sunda, we should naturally expect a close resemblance 

 between the productions of the two islands. But in point 

 of fact there is a much greater difference between them 

 than between Sumatra and Borneo, so much further apart, 

 and so very unlike in physical features.^ Java differs from 

 the three great land masses — Borneo, Sumatra, and the 

 Malay Peninsula, far more than either of these do from 

 each other ; and this is the first anomaly we encounter. 

 But a more serious difficulty than this remains to be stated. 

 Java has certain close resemblances to the Siamese Penin- 

 sula, and also to the Himalayas, which Borneo and Sumatra 

 do not exhibit to so great a proportionate extent ; and 

 looking at the relative position of these lands respectively, 

 this seems most incomprehensible. In order fully to 

 appreciate the singularity and difficulty of the problem, it 

 will be necessary to point out the exact nature and amount 

 of these peculiarities in the fauna of Java. 



General Character of the Fauna of Java. — If we were only 

 to take account of the number of peculiar species in Java, 

 and the relations of its fauna generally to that of the 

 surrounding lands, we might pass it over as a less interest- 

 ing island than Borneo or Sumatra. Its mammalia (ninety 

 species) are much less numerous than those of Borneo, 

 and are apparently less peculiar, none of the genera and 

 only five or six of the species being confined to the island. 

 In land- birds it is also less rich, having only 300 species,'-^ 



1 In a letter from Darwin he says : — " Hooker writes to me, 'Miguel lias 

 heen telling me that the flora of Sumatra and Borneo are identical, and 

 that of Java quite different.' " 



2 As there is no recent account of the fauna of Java, the figures here 

 given may require some modification. 



