430 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part II. 



marked genus, and whicli may have been derived, either from 

 the Malayan or the Moluccan side of the Archipelago. Two 

 peculiar genera of kingfishers — Monachalcyon and Cittura — seem 

 allied, the former to the widespread Todiramphus and to the 

 Caridonax of Lombok, the latter to the Australian Melidora. 

 Another kingfisher, Ceycopsis, combines the characters of the 

 Malayan Ceyx and the African Ispidina, and thus forms an 

 example of an ancient generalised form analogous to what 

 occurs among the mammalia. Streptocitta is a peculiar form 

 allied to the magpies ; while Basilornis (found also in Ceram), 

 Enodes, and Scissirostrum, are very peculiar starlings, the latter 

 altogether unlike any other bird, and perhaps forming a distinct 

 sub-family. Meropogon is a peculiar bee-eater, allied to the 

 Malayan Nyctiornis ; Khamphococyx is a modification of 

 Phsenicophaes, a Malayan genus of cuckoos ; Prioniturus (found 

 also in the Philippines) is a genus of parrots distinguished by 

 raquet-formed tail feathers, altogether unique in the order; 

 while Megacephalon is a remarkable and very isolated form of 

 the Australian Megapodiidse, or mound-builders. 



Omitting those whose affinity may be pretty clearly traced to 

 groups still inhabiting the islands of the western or the eastern 

 half of the Archipelago, we find four birds which have no near 

 allies at all, but appear to be either ancestral forms, or extreme 

 modifications, of Asiatic or African birds — Basilornis, Enodes, 

 Scissirostrum^ Ceycopsis. These may fairly be associated with 

 the baboon-ape, anoa, and babirusa, as indicating extreme 

 antiquity and some communication with the Asiatic continent 

 at a period when the forms of life and their geographical dis- 

 tribution differed considerably from what they are at the 

 present time. 



But here again we meet with exactly the same difficulty as 

 in the mammalia, in the comparative poverty of the types of 

 birds now inhabiting Celebes. Although the preponderance of 

 affinity, especially in the case of its more ancient and peculiar 

 forms, is undoubtedly with Asia rather than with Australia; 

 yet, still more decidedly than in the case of the mammalia, are 

 we forbidden to suppose that it ever formed a part of the old 

 Asiatic continent, on account of the total absence of so many 



