6 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part I. 



almost identical in climate and in luxuriance of vegetation, but 

 their animal life is totally diverse. In the former we have 

 tapirs, sloths, and prehensile-tailed monkeys ; in the latter 

 elephants, antelopes, and man-like apes; while among birds, 

 the toucans, chatterers, and humming-birds of Brazil are re- 

 placed by the plantain-eaters, bee-eaters, and sun-birds of Africa. 

 Parts of South-temperate America, South Africa, and South 

 Australia, correspond closely in climate; yet the birds and 

 quadrupeds of these three districts are as completely unlike 

 each other as those of any parts of the world that can be 

 named. 



If we visit the great islands of the globe, we find that they 

 present similar anomalies in their animal productions, for 

 while some exactly resemble the nearest continents others are 

 widely different. Thus the quadrupeds birds and insects of 

 Borneo correspond very closely to those of the Asiatic continent, 

 while those of Madagascar are extremely unlike African forms, 

 although the distance from the continent is less in the latter 

 case than in the former. And if we compare the three great 

 islands Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes — lying as it were side by 

 Ride in the same ocean — we find that the two former, although 

 furthest apart, have almost identical productions, while the two 

 latter, though closer together, are more unlike than Britain and 

 Japan situated in different oceans and separated by the largest 

 of the great continents. 



These examples will illustrate the kind of questions it is the 

 object of the present work to deal with. Every continent, 

 every country, and every island on the globe, offer similar 

 problems of greater or less complexity and interest, and the 

 time has now arrived when their solution can be attempted with 

 some prospect of success. Many years study of this class of 

 subjects has convinced me that there is no short and easy 

 method of dealing with them ; because they are, in their very 

 nature, the visible outcome and residual product of the whole 

 past history of the earth. If we take the organic productions 

 of a small island, or of any very limited tract of country such 

 as a moderate-sized country parish, we have, in their relations 

 and affinities — in the fact that they are there and others are 



