GEOGRAPIIY OF TIIE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 
177 
region proves nothing whatever as regards a transition to the 
western islands, which, among their numerous monkeys and apes, 
have nothing at all resembling them. The species of Celebes and 
Batchian have the high superorbital ridge, the long nasal bone, 
the dog-like figure, the minute erect tail, the predaceous habits and 
the fearless disposition of the true Baboons, and find their allies 
nowhere nearer than in tropical Africa. The Anoa seems also to 
point towards the same region, so rich in varied forms of Antelopes. 
In the class of birds, Celebes possesses a peculiar genus of Par- 
rots (Prioniturus) , said to occur also in the Philippines \.Meropogon, 
intermediate between an Indian and an African form of Bee-eaters ; 
and the anomalous Scissirostrum, which Prince Bonaparte places 
next to a Madagascar bird, and forms a distinct subfamily for the 
reception of the two. Celebes also contains a species of Coracias , 
which is here quite out of its normal area, the genus being other- 
wise confined to Africa and continental India, not occurring in 
any other part of the Archipelago. The Celebes bird is placed, in 
Bonaparte’s * Conspectus,’ between two African species, to which 
therefore I presume it is more nearly allied than to those of India. 
Having just received Mr. Smith’s Catalogue of the Hyinenoptera 
collected during my first residence in Celebes, I find in it some 
facts of an equally singular nature. Of 103 species, only 10 are 
known to inhabit any of the western islands of the Archipelago, 
while 18 are identical with species of continental India, China, 
and the Philippine Islands, two are stated to be identical with 
insects hitherto known only from tropical Africa, and another is 
said to be most closely allied to one from the Cape. 
These phenomena of distribution are, I believe, the most anoma- 
lous yet known, and in fact altogether unique. I am aware of no 
other spot upon the earth which contains a number of species, in 
several distinct classes of animals, the nearest allies to which do 
not exist in any of the countries which on every side surround it, 
but which are to be found only in another primary division of the 
globe, separated from them all by a vast expanse of ocean. In no 
other case are the species of a genus or the genera of a family dis- 
tributed in two distinct areas separated by countries in which they 
do not exist ; so that it has come to be considered a law in geo- 
graphical distribution, “ that both species and groups inhabit con- 
tinuous areas.” 
Facts such as these can only be explained by a bold acceptance 
of vast changes in the surface of the earth. They teach us that 
this island of Celebes is more ancient than most of the islands 
LFt m, prog. — zoology. 12 
