Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The actual number of peculiar species in each island I do not suppose to be at all accurately
determined, since the rapidly increasing numbers evidently depend upon the more extensive
collections made in Timor than in Flores, and in Flores than in Lombock; but what we can
depend more upon, and what is of more especial interest, is the greatly increased proportion
of Australian forms and decreased proportion of Indian forms, as we go from west to east.
We shall show this in a yet more striking manner by counting the number of species identic-
al with those of Java and Australia respectively in each island, thus:
Here we see plainly the course of the migration which has been going on for hundreds or
thousands of years, and is still going on at the present day. Birds entering from Java are
most numerous in the island nearest Java; each strait of the sea to be crossed to reach anoth-
observed that the number of birds that appear to have entered from Australia is much less
than those which have come from Java; and we may at first sight suppose that this is due to
the wide sea that separates Australia from Timor. But this would be a hasty and, as we shall
soon see, an unwarranted supposition. Besides these birds identical with species inhabiting
Java and Australia, there are a considerable number of others very closely allied to species
peculiar to those countries, and we must take these also into account before we form any
conclusion on the matter. It will be as well to combine these with the former table thus:
