CHAP. XX 



CELEBES 



459 



with those of other lands show similar proportions, 18 

 belonging to the Moluccas, New Guinea or Australia, while 

 48 are clearly derived from Borneo or other Malayan lands. 

 Combining the two, we find the following result. 



Derivation of the Land-birds of Celebes proper. 



Oriental Region. Australian Region. 



Peculiar species . . 29 Peculiar species . . 20 

 Non-peculiar species 48 Non-peculiar species 18 



Total . . 77 Total . . 38 



Dr. Meyer seems to consider that this great preponder- 

 ance of Malayan or Oriental affinity must settle the question 

 of the position of the island in the Oriental region. But 

 this is not quite so clear as at first sight it appears to be. 

 On the one side we have a very rich island, Borneo, on the 

 other the comparatively poor, small, and more remote 

 Moluccas, with Australia and New Guinea still farther 

 removed ; and it seems probable that the proportion of 

 the whole bird fauna of Borneo which has reached Celebes 

 is less than the corresponding proportion of Moluccan birds. 



We cannot tabulate the birds of the Celebesian islets 

 in quite the same way, because almost all their peculiar 

 species are modifications of those in the main island. 

 But we find there two Australian or Papuan genera, Eos 

 and Aprosmictus, which are unknown in Celebes itself, 

 and there are also no less than twenty species of 

 Moluccan, Papuan, or Australian birds which do not 

 inhabit Celebes, while there are only three species of 

 Oriental birds which are not found in the parent island. 

 But, further, we find that no less than twenty-eight 

 species found in the islets and not in Celebes belong to 

 genera which either wholly belong to the Australian 

 region or are highly characteristic of it. These are 

 Megapodius (3 sp.), Carpophaga (4 sp.), Ptilopus (4 sp.), 

 Trichoglossus (2 sp.), Eos (1 sp.), Aprosmictus (1 sp.), 

 Tanygnathus (2 sp.), Loriculus (3 sp.), Monarcha (2 sp.), 

 and Pachycephala (6 sp.), and these give a distinctive 

 character to the ornithology of the Celebesian islets. 



H II 2 



