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Show 355 ISLAND LIFE. (l'ART Il. facts to be considered, which seem to imply much greater and more complex revolutions than the recent separation of Borneo from Sumatra and the }flalay Peninsula, and that these changes must have been spread over a considerable lapse of time. In order to understand what these changes probably were, we . must give a brief sketch of the fauna of Java, the peculiarities of which introduce a new element into the question we have to discuss. JAVA. The rich and beautiful island of Java, interesting alike to the politician, the geographer, and the naturalist, is more especially . attractive to the student of geographical dis.tribution, because it furnishes him with some of the most curious anomalies and difficult problems in a place where such would be least expected. As Java forms with Sumatra one almost unbroken line of volcanoes and volcanic mountains, interrupted only by the narrow Straits of Sunda, we should naturally expect a close resemblance between the productions of the two islands. But in point of fact there is a much greater difference between them than between Sumatra and Borneo, so much further apart, and so very unlike in physical features. Java differs from the three great land masses-Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, far more tha.n either of these do from each other ; and this is the first anomaly we encounter. But a more serious difficulty than this remains to be stated. Java has certain close resemblances to the Siamese Peninsula, and also to the Himalayas, which Borneo and Sumatra do not exhibit, and looking at the relative position of these lands respectively, this seems most _incomprehensible. In order fully to appreciate the singularity and difficulty of the problem, it will be necessary to point out the exact nature and amount of these peculiarities in the fauna of Java. General cha1·acter of the Fauna of Java.-If we were only to take account of the number of peculiar species in Java, and the _relations of its fauna generally to that of the surrounding lands, we might pass it over as a less interesting island than Borneo or _Sumatra. Its m.ammalia (ninety species) are nearly as numerous CUAP. XVll.) BOHNEO AND JAVA. c57 as those of Borneo, but are apparently less peculiar, none of the genera and only five or six of the species being confined to the island. In land-birds it is decidedly less rich havinrr ' b only 270 species, of which forty are peculiar, and only one or two belong to peculiar genera; so that here again the amount of speciality is less than in Borneo. It is only when we proceed to analyse the species of the Javan fauna, and trace their distribution and aff-inities, that we discover its interesting nature. Di.ffe1·ence between the Fauna of Java and that of the other g1·eat Malay Islands.-Compating the fauna of Java with that which may be called the typical Malayan fauna as exhibited in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, we find the following differences. No less than thirteen genera of mammalia, each of which is known to inhabit at least two, and generally all three, of the above-named J\-Ialayan countries, are yet totally absent from Java ; and they include such important forms as the elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear. It cannot be said that this difference depends on imperfect knowledge, for Java is one of the oldest European settlements in the East, and has been explored by a long succession of Dutch and English naturalists. Every part of it is thoroughly well known, and it would be almost as difficult to find a new mammal of any size in Europe as in Java. Of birds there are twenty-five genera, all typically Malayan and occurring at least in two, and for the most part in all three of the Malay countries, which are yet absent from Java. Most of these are large and conspicuous forms, such as jays, gapers, bee-eaters; woodpeckers, hornbills, cuckoos, parrots, pheasants, and partridges, as impossible to have remained undiscovered in Java as the large mammalia above referred to. Besides these absent genera there are some curious illustrations of J a van isolation· in the species; there being several cases in which the same species occurs in all three of the typical Malay countries, while in Java it is represented by an allied species. Such appear to be the Malayan monkey, Semnopithec1. t-S cristatus, replaced in Java by S. maurus; and the large Malay deer, R~tsa eqttinus, represented in Java by R. hippelaphu,s. Among birds there are more numerous examples, no less than seven species which are common to the three great |