BISTEIBUTIOK OF OPHIDIANS. 
233 
selves with remarking, that the Wild Peacock represents 
the Argus of Sumatra and of Borneo ; the Great Hornbill 
of that island, Buceros lanatus, forms a different race from 
the true Buceros Bhinoceros of Sumatra and Borneo, &c. 
Among reptiles, the Trionyx stellatus has never yet been 
observed in any other of the Sunda Islands except Java, 
where it lives equally with the Trionyx subplanatus, 
which is the only Tortoise known in Borneo, Sumatra, and 
Malacca. The Emys trijuga'^ appears peculiar to Java, 
as also a small number of Beptiles, Saurians, and Ba- 
trachians, but which all belong to species of small size. It 
is a curious fact, that two of the most remarkable species 
of Trigonocephalus, Trig, puniceus, and T. rhodostoma, 
have hitherto never been observed except in Java ; v/hile 
the green Trigonocephalus, so common in the Indian Pen- 
insula, in Bengal, in Sumatra, and in Timor, does not 
oxist in Java. The Bungari, which inhabit Ceylon, India, 
on that of our domestic Ox. It is ascertained, that in demonstrating the 
impossibility of identity between the Wolf and the Fox and our Dog, we 
have at least arrived at the conclusion, that our Dog is not of European ori- 
gin ; but we have searched in vain for the parent stock of this carnivo- 
rous animal. I do not hesitate to adopt for such the Wild Dog of the lofty 
mountains of the continent of Asia, of which specimens have been sent us 
from Bengal, and which is also found in Sumatra, Java, and in Borneo ; 
it is named Canis rutilans, Sumatranus, and Javanicus. In taking, for 
comparison, the domestic Dog of Japan, or even our Shepherd’s Dog 
(races which have degenerated the least), we find that there exists a cer- 
tain analogy between these animals and the wild dogs of India, so that 
it is almost impossible to doubt their identity ; there do even not 
exist sensible differences between the skeletons of those animals, and 
their crania are so like, as to be mistaken for each other : the same ob- 
servation may be applied to the cranium of the Esquimaux Dog. Our 
poultry, lastly, come without doubt from India, if not from the Wild 
Cock of Java, or at least from an analogous race of Continental Asia. In 
conclusion, I regret not to be able to develope the observations now made, 
by publishing the extended researches which the numerous materials 
collected in the galleries of the Museum of the Low Countries have af- 
forded me, as I could confirm by dissection the views I here have ad- 
vanced. 
* There is found at Pondichery an analogous species, but with a head 
less thick, which M. Bibron takes for the true Trijuga of Schweiger ; 
Boie deceived himself, then, in applying in the Herpetology of Java that 
epithet to the Javanese species, which it is now necessary to consider 
as new. 
U 
