358 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part ir. 



Malay countries being represented in Java by distinct but 

 closely allied species. 



From these facts it is impossible to doubt that Java has 

 had a history of its own, quite distinct from that of the other 

 portions of the Malayan area. 



Special relations of the Javan Fauna to that of the Asiatic 

 Continent. — These relations are indicated by comparatively 

 few examples, but they are very clear and of great im- 

 portance. Among mammalia, the genus Helictis is found in 

 Java but in no other Malay country, though it inhabits also 

 North India ; while two species, Rhinoceros javanicus and Lepus 

 hurgosa, are natives of Indo-Chinese countries and Java, but not 

 of typical Malaya. In birds there are three genera — Zoothera, 

 Notodela, and Crypsirhina, which inhabit Java and Indo-China ; 

 while four others — Brachypteryx, Allotrius, Cochoa, and Psal- 

 tria, inhabit Java and the Himalayas, but no intervening 

 country. There are also two species of birds — a trogon {Harpactes 

 oreshios), and the Javanese peacock (Pavo muticus), which inhabit 

 only Java and the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. 



Here, then, we find a series of remarkable similarities between 

 Java and the Asiatic continent, quite independent of the typical 

 Malay countries — Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, 

 which latter have evidently formed one connected land, and 

 thus appear to preclude any independent union of Java 

 and Siam. 



The great difficulty in explaining these facts is, that all the 

 required changes of sea and land must have occurred within 

 the period of existing species of mammalia. Sumatra, Borneo, 

 and Malacca are, as we have seen, almost precisely alike as 

 regards their species of mammals and birds ; while Java, though 

 it differs from them in so curious a manner ; has no greater 

 degree of speciality, since its species, when not Malayan, are 

 almost all Indian or Siamese. 



There is, however, one consideration which may help us over 

 this difficulty. It seems highly probable that in the equatorial 

 regions species have changed less rapidly than in the north 

 temperate zone, on account of the equality and stability of 

 the equatorial climate. We have seen, in Chapter X., how 



