358 
ISLAND LIFE. 
[part II. 
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 
kurgosa, 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 
oreskios), 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 
