THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
43 
In spite of this richness there are many very important 
genera found in all the other Malay islands which are 
wanting in the archipelago. This isolation is further 
marked by the fact that more than two-thirds of the 
Philippine species are peculiar to the group, and that 
they include such birds as cockatoos and mound-builders 
( Megapodius ), which are essentially typical of the 
Moluccas and the other eastern islands. Similarly the 
preponderance of parrots and pigeons points out a strong- 
eastern connection, and although woodpeckers—a group 
characteristic of the western regions — are rather 
numerous, no pheasants exist, except upon Palawan, 
an island which, as has already been shown, is so con¬ 
clusively Bornean, that it should not be taken into 
consideration in discussing the geological history of the 
Philippine Archipelago. The only game birds found in 
the islands are the common jungle fowl (Gallus bankiva) 
and one or two small quail. 
Of the other vertebrates little is known. There are 
crocodiles, lizards, and snakes in abundance, and among 
the latter are pythons, which destroy young cattle, and 
are said in some cases to exceed 40 feet in length. In¬ 
sects are abundant and of great beauty. As in the case 
of the birds, mammals, and plants, they differ in many 
respects from those of the other Malay islands, and show 
in numerous instances an affinity with those of the 
eastern islands. 
Instructive as is the distribution of all the foregoing 
classes of the animal kingdom in the archipelago, the 
land mollusca yield to none in interest, both in them¬ 
selves and in their relation to those of the neighbouring- 
islands. Pre-eminent among them is the group known 
as GocJilostyla , a genus of large and handsome snails with 
affinities both with Helix and Bulimus. This group, of 
