Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
it is often made captive by the Malays, who procure civet from it, and it is an animal very
restless and untameable, and therefore likely to escape. This view is rendered still more
probable by what Antonio de Morga
*
tells us was the custom in the Philippines in 1602. He
says that 'the natives of Mindanao carry about civet-cats in cages, and sell them in the is-
lands; and they take the civet from them, and let them go again.' The same species is com-
mon in the Philippines and in all the large islands of the Indo-Malay region.
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. Deer
are often tamed and petted, and their flesh is so much esteemed by all Malays, that it is very
natural they should endeavour to introduce them into the remote islands in which they
settled, and whose luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for their subsistence.
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. It is true that there is some approx-
imation between the birds of the Sula Islands (where the babirusa is also found) and those of
Bouru, which seems to indicate that these islands have recently been closer together, or that
some intervening land has disappeared. 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 Ar-
chipelago, even to several of the smaller islands, and in many cases the species are peculiar.
It is evident, therefore, that they have some natural means of dispersal. There is a popular
idea that pigs cannot swim, but Sir Charles Lyell has shown that this is a mistake. In his
'Principles of Geology' (10th Edit. vol. ii. p. 355) he adduces evidence to show that pigs
have swum many miles at sea, and are able to swim with great ease and swiftness. I have
myself seen a wild pig swimming across the arm of the sea that separates Singapore from
the Peninsula of Malacca, and we thus have explained the curious fact, that of all the large
mammals of the Indian region, pigs alone extend beyond the Moluccas and as far as New
Guinea, although it is somewhat curious that they have not found their way to Australia.
The little shrew, Sorex myosurus, which is common in Sumatra, Borneo, and Java, is also
found in the larger islands of the Moluccas, to which it may have been accidentally con-
veyed in native praus.
This completes the list of the placental mammals which are so characteristic of the Indian
region; and we see that, with the single exception of the pig, all may very probably have
been introduced by man, since all except the pig are of species identical with those now
abounding in the great Malay islands, or in Celebes.
The four remaining mammals are Marsupials, an order of the class Mammalia, which is
very characteristic of the Australian fauna; and these are probably true natives of the Moluc-
