Introduction: Seasons and Winds. 
33 
and morning, rising sometimes to 32® — 35® C. at midday. In the interior it is 
less hot, the nights being even cold and damp. In Billiton the damp atmosphere 
is sometimes very oppressive, although the temperature in the morning and 
evening is 22® — 23.5® C., and rarely more than 29® C. at midday; the nights 
very cool (de Hollander, t. c, 812, 828; van der Stok, Wind and Weather). 
Java. — The chief meteorologic conditions of this island as recorded by 
de Hollander have been already given (pp. 22 — 24). Bad weather is encoun- 
tered during the N.W. Monsoon (October to April) ; the fine season accompanies 
the S. E. Monsoon in the months of our summer. On the south coast much 
wet is also brought up by the S.E. Monsoon from the Indian Ocean, particularly 
towards the western parts of this coast, but the true rainy season here as else- 
where is during the N.W. Monsoon. It has been said that bad weather marks 
the shifting of the Monsoons; there set in “wild storms from the W. and N.W.”; 
“storms of wind and rain beneath a clouded sky alternate with severe gales and 
heavy winds” (Jansen in Maury’s Phys. Geogr. Sea, ed., 380); but the 
extensive observations of van der Stok lead him to the opposite conclusion 
— that “the condition of the sea is at its best when the Monsoons turn, i. e. in 
March, April, and November” (op. cit. p. 57). 
The Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Timor, 
Rotti, Timorlaut, and the intermediate smaller islands). — The wet and the dry 
seasons are here very strongly contrasted, especially in Timor. In this island 
hardly a drop of rain falls during the five months June — October, while an 
abundance comes down in December, January and February. The rivers are 
said to be then overstreaming, but during the S. E. Monsoon many are dried 
up, and the thermometer then rises to 52® C. in the sun and 35® C. in the 
shade. A similar drought in summer is found at least on the north coast of 
the other islands (Bali, Sumbawa). Flores is subject to manifold and sudden 
changes in the atmosphere, making it very unhealthy. An injurious wind, the 
“Anging bolo”, occurs, as mentioned above (p. 27) , in Sumbawa where the 
climate is considered unhealthy. The Lesser Sunda Islands as a whole receive 
far less rain than Java, Celebes or the Moluccas, and only about one-half or 
one-third the amount of that which falls in Borneo, and ornithologists should 
not neglect to make studies of possible climatic variation among allied species 
of birds in these regions, such as have been made on certain birds in North 
America by Allen (see, below p. 58). It may be that the climate has had some- 
thing to do with “Wallace’s Line” as far as it goes (see, below pp. 81 — 89)., for 
not all animals and plants can exist indifferently in a wet climate like that of 
Borneo and a dry one like that of the Lesser Sundas. A general similarity 
between Timor and Australia has been noticed, and it should not be forgotten 
that the S.E. Monsoon, which is productive of the drought in the Lesser Sundas 
blows out of the arid deserts of Australia, and it may bring many things directly 
with it, just as the returning N.W. Monsoon may carry to Australia any thing 
that is capable of sustaining a voyage through the air. 
Meyer & Wi gl e s w ortli, Birds of Celebes (May dtii, 1898). 5 
