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Show 354 ISLAND LIFE. [PART li. SECOND BERmS. FIRRT SERIES. Very distinct 817ecies. Representative Species. SYLVIlD.LE (Warblers). 2i. Abrornis schwaneri. 28. Prinia superciliaris. 25. Orthotomus borneonensis. 29. Cabmodyta dorire. 30. Kittacincla stricklandi. 26. Kittacincla suavis. 31. Mirafra borneensis. 32. Munia fnscans. CoRVIDlE (Crows and Jays). 1 27. Dendrocitta ciner~scens. 28. Phtysmur1,1s a,ternmus. ALAUDlD.IE (Larks). I PLOCElD.lE (Wea,ver Finches). I PHASTANID.lE (Pheasants). (33. Polyplectron emphanum, I. of 29. Argusianus grayi. Palawan.) 34. P. schleiel'lnacheri. 35. Lobiophasis bulweri. 36. , castaneicauda. 30. Euplocamus nobilis. 31. , pyronotus. RALLTD..IE (Rails). 37 .. Rallina rufigenis. I TETRAONID.lE (Partridges &c.). 38. Hematortyx sanguiniceps. 39. Bambu~icola hyperythra. I Representative forms of the same character as these are no doubt found in all extensive continental areas, but they are rarely so numerous. Thus in Mr. Elwes' paper on the "Distribution of Asiatic Birds," he states that 12·5 per cent. of the land birds of Burmah and Tenasserim are peculiar species, whereas we find that in Borneo they are about 20 per cent., and the difference may fairly be imputed to the greater proportion of slightly modified representative species due to ·a period of complete isola,tion. Of peculiar genera, the Indo-Chinese Peninsula has one-Ampeliceps, a remarkable yellow-crowned starling, with hare pink-coloured orbits; while two others, Temnurus and Crypsirhina-singular birds allied to the jn,ys-are found in no other part of the Asiatic continent though they occur in some of the Malay Islands. Borneo has three peculiar genera, Schwaneria, a flycatcher; Hematortyx, a crested partridge; and Lobiophasis, a pheasant hardly distinct from Euplocamus; while CIJ AI'. XVII.) BORNEO AND JAVA. 355 two others, Pityriasis, an extraordinary bare-headed bird between a jay and a shrike, and Carpococcyx, a pheasant-like ground cuckoo formerly thought to be peculiar, are said to have been discovered also in Sumatra. The insects and land-shells of Borneo and of the surroundincr • • 0 countnes are too 1m perfectly known to enable us to arrive at any accurate results with regard to their distribution. They agree, however, with the birds and mammals in their creneral approximation to Malayan forms, but the number of ;eculiar species is perhaps larger. The proportion here shown of one-third peculiar species of mammalia to about one-fifth peculiar species of land-birds, teaches us that the possession of the power of flight only affects the distribution of animals in a limited degree, and gives us confidence in the results we may arrive at in those cases where we have, from whatever cause, to depend on a knowledge of the birds alone. And the difference we here find to exist is almost wholly due to the wide range of certain groups of powerful flight -as the birds of prey, the swallows and swifts, the king-crows, and some others; while the majority of forest-birds appear to remain confined, by even narrow watery barriers, to almost as great an extent as do the mammalia. The affin'ities of the Bornean Fa~tna.-The animals of Borneo exhibit an almost perfect identity in general character, and a close similarity in species, with those of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. So great is this resemblance that it is a question whether it might not be quite as great were the whole united ; for the extreme points of Borneo and Sumatra are 1,500 miles apart-as far as from Madrid to Constantinople, or from Bombay to Rangoon. In this distance we should expect to meet with many local species, and even representative forms, so that we hardly require a lapse of time S'\lfficient to have produced specific change. So far as the forms of life are concerned, Borneo, as an island, may be no older than Great Britain; for the time that has elapsed since the glacial epoch would be amply sufficient to produce such a redistribution of the species, consequent on their mutual relations being disturbed, as would bring the islands into their present zoological condition. There are, however, other A A 2 |