Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Ornithology of Timor. 349 
though 600 miles distant from Timor, is connected with it by a 
chain of islands; and between these more than twenty miles of 
sea nowhere intervenes, so that the passage across might have 
been easily effected by the progenitors of these birds, which are 
all capable of greater powers of flight than the circumstances 
would require. 
The absence of Megapodius from Timor—a fact already noticed 
by the Dutch naturalists, and which all my inquiries tend to 
confirm—is a very singular one, because the genus exists in every 
other island of the Australian region, and even in the little 
island of Semao, at the west end of Timor. I can only conjec¬ 
ture that it may have been exterminated by the Tiger-cat, said to 
exist in the interior. Taking into consideration the absence of 
such characteristic Australian birds as Dacelo } Malurus, Cracti- 
cus, and Casuarius , together with the non-existence of a single 
Australian genus of Mammals, I cannot believe that Timor has 
ever been actually connected with Australia, though the sea 
which separates them has probably been much narrower than at 
present, as is indicated by the great Sahul bank, which now 
extends from the shores of Northern Australia to within twenty 
miles of the south coast of Timor. 
We may therefore, I think, fairly look upon the fauna of Timor 
as almost entirely derived by immigration from the surrounding 
countries, and subsequently modified by the reciprocal action of 
the species on each other and by the influence of a new vegeta¬ 
tion. In accordance with this view we find the external relations 
of the genera and species of which it is composed varying in 
degree with the varying distances of the surrounding lands, and 
the probability of the reception of immigrants from them. 
The Dutch naturalists who explored the interior of the west 
part of Timor seem to have collected a great many birds, and 
some French expeditions have also visited it. It thus happens 
that most of the species are already known, though I suppose 
many of them are rare in collections. I have 10 species of 
Pigeons; and there is still one , mentioned in Bonaparte^s f Con¬ 
spectus ; as Ptilonopus viridissimus , which I have not met with. 
Trichoglossus euteles was very abundant on the flowers of the 
Eucalypti; a smaller red-capped species (T. iris ?) also occurred ; 
