348 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Ornithology of Timor. 
scarce, and in the dry season extensive tracts of country are 
destitute of water, circumstances not likely to be favourable to 
bird-life. 
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, however, I have ob¬ 
tained upwards of a hundred species of birds, about two-thirds or 
perhaps three-fourths of which number are altogether peculiar to 
the island of Timor, although closely allied to those of the sur¬ 
rounding countries. Australian forms are, as might be ex¬ 
pected, the most numerous, and it is from that country that 
Timor has evidently derived the greater portion of its birds. 
Even where the genus is widely distributed we can often see 
that the particular species has been derived from Australia, as 
Artamus perspicillatus and Aprosmictus vulneratus , which are 
slight modifications of Australian species; while others, as Ama- 
dina castanotis , have remained altogether unchanged. On the 
other hand, the resemblance to the Moluccas is very slight. 
Lorius, Eos, and all the characteristic forms of New Guinea, are 
quite wanting; and there are only three birds that seem to have 
been derived from the Moluccan or Papuan faunas—viz. 
Geoffroius jukesii, Ptilonopus flavicollis, and Iantheenas metallica. 
The relation is equally slight to Celebes, and is shown only by 
the Turaccena modesta , closely allied to the T. manadensis, Q. & G., 
of Celebes, and the Ptilonopus cinctus , forming, with the P. 
gularis of Celebes, the subgenus Leucotreron , Bp. I very much 
regret not having obtained the other species of this interesting 
group, which my friend Mr. Geach assures me are found in the 
interior of the island. In particular he mentioned a species re¬ 
sembling the P. cinctus, but in which the white forms a ring 
round the neck, and his opinion was that there existed in Timor 
three or four species of the same group having the colours 
differently distributed. 
Besides the birds already mentioned, and which are all more 
or less characteristic of the Australian region, Timor contains an 
important Indian element, consisting of Javan species or their 
representatives. The genera Lanius, Cyornis, Treron, Gallus , 
and Estrelda occur here, but are not found in any part of the 
Moluccas, and only one or two of them in Celebes. About thirty 
species thus appear to have been derived from Java, which, 
