Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Borneo. But as this animal is known to swim well, it may have found its way across the
Straits of Sunda, or it may have inhabited Java before it was separated from the main land,
and from some unknown cause have ceased to exist in Borneo.
In Ornithology there is a little uncertainty owing to the birds of Java and Sumatra being
much better known than those of Borneo; but the ancient separation of Java as an island is
well exhibited by the large number of its species which are not found in any of the other is-
lands. It possesses no less than seven pigeons peculiar to itself, while Sumatra has only one.
Of its two parrots one extends into Borneo, but neither into Sumatra. Of the fifteen species
of woodpeckers inhabiting Sumatra only four reach Java, while eight of them are found in
Borneo and twelve in the Malay peninsula. The two Trogons found in Java are peculiar to it,
while of those inhabiting Sumatra at least two extend to Malacca and one to Borneo. There
are a very large number of birds, such as the great Argus pheasant, the fire-backed and ocel-
lated pheasants, the crested partridge (Rollulus coronatus), the small Malacca parrot (Psit-
tinus incertus), the great helmeted hornbill (Buceroturus galeatus), the pheasant ground-
cuckoo (Carpococcyx radiatus), the rose-crested bee-eater (Nyctiornis amicta), the great
gaper (Corydon sumatranus), and the green-crested gaper (Calyptomena viridis), and many
others, which are common to Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo, but are entirely absent from
Java. On the other hand we have the peacock, the green jungle cock, two blue ground
thrushes (Arrenga cyanea and Myophonus flavirostris), the fine pink-headed dove (Pti-
lonopus porphyreus), three broad-tailed ground pigeons (Macropygia), and many other in-
teresting birds, which are found nowhere in the Archipelago out of Java.
Insects furnish us with similar facts wherever sufficient data are to be had, but owing to
the abundant collections that have been made in Java, an unfair preponderance may be given
to that island. This does not, however, seem to be the case with the true Papilionidæ or
swallow-tailed butterflies, whose large size and gorgeous colouring has led to their being
collected more frequently than other insects. Twenty-seven species are known from Java,
twenty-nine from Borneo, and only twenty-one from Sumatra. Four are entirely confined to
Java, while only two are peculiar to Borneo and one to Sumatra. The isolation of Java will,
however, be best shown by grouping the islands in pairs, and indicating the number of spe-
cies common to each pair. Thus:—
