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About one-half of the New Guinea genera are found also in Australia, about one-third in India and the Indo-Malay islands. A very curious fact, not hitherto sufficiently noticed, is the appearance of a pure Malay element in the birds of New Guinea.
The birds of the Indo-Malay region have a close resemblance to those of India; for though a very large proportion of the species are quite distinct, there are only about fifteen peculiar genera, and not a single family group confined to the former district.
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.
I now propose to give a sketch of the Natural History of these, which I term the Indo-Malay islands, and to show how far it supports this view, and how much information it is able to give us of the antiquity and origin of the separate islands.
He says that "the natives of Mindanao carry about civet-cats in cages, and sell them in the islands; and they take the civet from them, and let them go again." The same species is common in the Philippines and in all the large islands of the Indo-Malay region.
Of Carnivora, thirty-three species are known from the Indo-Malay region, of which about eight are found also in Burma and India. Among these are the tiger, leopard, a tiger-cat, civet, and otter; while out of the twenty genera of Malayan Carnivora, thirteen are represented in India by more or less closely allied species.
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
I allude to the absence of several groups which are found on both sides of it, in the Indo-Malay islands as well as in the Moluccas; and which thus seem to be unable, from some unknown cause, to obtain a footing in the intervening island.
But this close resemblance to New Guinea genera does not extend to the species, for no less than 140 out of the 195 land-birds are peculiar to the Moluccan islands, while 32 are found also in New Guinea, and 15 in the Indo-Malay islands.
The number of Mammalia known to inhabit the Indo-Malay region is very considerable, exceeding 170 species.
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