Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ornis), but whose affinities are so doubtful that Professor Schlegel places them among the
Starlings, are entirely confined to Celebes. They are beautiful long-tailed birds, with black
and white plumage, and with the feathers of the head somewhat rigid and scale-like.
Doubtfully allied to the Starlings are two other very isolated and beautiful birds. One,
Enodes erythrophrys, has ashy and yellow plumage, but is ornamented with broad stripes of
orange-red above the eyes. The other, Basilornis celebensis, is a blue-black bird with a white
patch on each side of the breast, and the head ornamented with a beautiful compressed scaly
crest of feathers, resembling in form that of the well-known Cock-of-the-rock of South
America. The only ally to this bird is found in Ceram, and has the feathers of the crest
elongated upwards into quite a different form.
A still more curious bird is the Scissirostrum pagei, which although it is at present classed
in the Starling family, differs from all other species in the form of the bill and nostrils, and
seems most nearly allied in its general structure to the Ox-peckers (Buphaga) of tropical
Africa, next to which the celebrated ornithologist Prince Bonaparte
*
finally placed it. It is
almost entirely of a slaty colour, with yellow bill and feet, but the feathers of the rump and
upper tail-coverts each terminate in a rigid glossy pencil or tuft of a vivid crimson. These
pretty little birds take the place of the metallic-green starlings of the genus Calornis, which
are found in most other islands of the Archipelago, but which are absent from Celebes. They
go in flocks, feeding upon grain and fruits, often frequenting dead trees, in holes of which
they build their nests; and they cling to the trunks as easily as woodpeckers or creepers.
Out of eighteen Pigeons found in Celebes eleven are peculiar to it. Two of them, Pti-
lonopus gularis and Turacæna menadensis, have their nearest allies in Timor. Two others,
Carpophaga forsteni and Phlægenas tristigmata, most resemble Philippine island species;
and Carpophaga radiata belongs to a New Guinea group. Lastly, in the Gallinaceous tribe,
the curious helmeted Maleo (Megacephalon rubripes) is quite isolated, having its nearest
(but still distant) allies in the Brush-turkeys of Australia and New Guinea.
Judging, therefore, by the opinions of the eminent naturalists who have described and
classified its birds, we find that many of the species have no near allies whatever in the
countries which surround Celebes, but are either quite isolated, or indicate relations with
such distant regions as New Guinea, Australia, India, or Africa. Other cases of similar re-
mote affinities between the productions of distant countries no doubt exist, but in no spot
upon the globe that I am yet acquainted with, do so many of them occur together, or do they
form so decided a feature in the natural history of the country.
The Mammalia of Celebes are very few in number, consisting of fourteen terrestrial spe-
cies and seven bats. Of the former no less than eleven are peculiar, including two which
