CHAP. XVH.] 



BOKNEO AND JAVA. 



?57 



as those of Borneo, but 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 decidedly less rich, having 

 only 270 species, of which forty are peculiar, and only one or two 

 belong to peculiar genera; so that here again the amount of 

 speciality is less than in Borneo. It is only when we proceed to 

 analyse the species of the Javan fauna, and trace their distri- 

 bution and affinities, that we discover its interesting nature. 



Difference hetween the Fauna of Java and that of the other 

 great Malay Islands. — Comparing the fauna of Java with that 

 which may be called the typical Malayan fauna as exhibited in 

 Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, we find the follow- 

 ing differences. No less than thirteen genera of mammalia, 

 each of which is known to inhabit at least two, and generally all 

 three, of the above-named Malayan countries, are yet totally 

 absent from J ava ; and they include such important forms as the 

 elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear. It cannot be said that 

 this difference depends on imperfect knowledge, for Java is one 

 of the oldest European settlements in the East, and has been 

 explored by a long succession of Dutch and English naturalists. 

 Every part of it is thoroughly well known, and it would be 

 almost as difficult to find a new mammal of any size in Europe 

 as in Java. Of birds there are twenty-five genera, all typically 

 Malayan and occurring at least in two, and for the most part 

 in all three of the Malay countries, which are yet absent from 

 Java. Most of these are large and conspicuous forms, such 

 as jays, gapers, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, hornbills, cuckoos, 

 parrots, pheasants, and partridges, as impossible to have remained 

 undiscovered in Java as the large mammalia above referred to. 



Besides these absent genera there are some curious illus- 

 trations of Javan isolation in the species; there being several 

 cases in which the same species occurs in all three of the typical 

 Malay countries, while in Java it is represented by an allied 

 species. Such appear to be the Malayan monkey, Semno- 

 joithecus cristatus, replaced in Java by S. maurus; and the 

 large Malay deer, Btcsa equinus, represented in Java by 

 hippelaphus. Among birds there are more numerous examples, 

 no less than seven species which are common to the three great 



