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The strange babirusa of Celebes is also found in Bouru; but in no other Moluccan island, and it is somewhat difficult to imagine how it got there. At this time the babirusa may have entered Bouru, since it probably swims as well as its allies the pigs. These are spread all over the Archipelago, even to several of the smaller islands, and in many cases the species are peculiar.
Out of fifteen species known from Timor, nine are found also in Java, or the islands west of it; three are Moluccan species, most of which are also found in Australia, and the rest are peculiar to Timor. The land mammals are only seven in number, as follows: 1.
But although the Sula islands belong to Celebes, they are so close to Bouru and the southern islands of the Gilolo group, that several purely Moluccan forms have migrated there, which are quite unknown to the island of Celebes itself; the whole thirteen Moluccan species being in this category, thus adding to the productions of Celebes a foreign element which does not really belong to it.
Out of the seventy-eight genera in which the Moluccan land-birds may be classed, no less than seventy are characteristic of Yew Guinea, while only six belong specially to the Indo-Malay islands.
In sunny Amboyna the cowl does not make the friar, and the last recollection of the little Moluccan capital is a vision of whirling figures and twanging lutes at the water's edge, while the receding steamer furrows the milky azure of the land-locked bay.
Of the four peculiar species two are decided modifications of Javanese forms, while the others seen allied to those of the Moluccas and Celebes. The very few land shells known are all, curiously enough, allied to or identical with Moluccan or Celebes forms. It has been objected to in Mr.
They made signs to the Dutch to go on shore, and spoke to them in a language which was not understood; neither did the Indians understand them, though spoken to in Spanish, Moluccan, and Javan. Getting near the coast, no bottom could be found, though only a musket-shot from land.
The reason of these peculiarities appears to be, that the Moluccan fauna has been almost entirely derived from that of New Guinea, in which country the same deficiency and the same luxuriance is to be observed.
PAPILIONIDAE AND HAWKS, PARROTS, AND PERIDAE PIGEONS. Percent of peculiar Percent of peculiar Species. Species. Indo-Malay region.... 56.......... 54 Philippine group .... 66.......... 73 Celebes......... 69.......... 60 Moluccan group ..... 52.......... 62 Timor group....... 42.......... 47 Papuan group ...... 64.......... 74
The only Moluccan ruminant is a deer, which was once supposed to be a distinct species, but is now generally considered to be a slight variety of the Rusa hippelaphus of Java.
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