Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tion to the action of external conditions has led to infinite detailed modifications of form and
colour, which have in many cases given a considerable diversity to the productions of adja-
cent islands.
Owing to the great preponderance among the birds, of parrots, pigeons, kingfishers, and
sunbirds, almost all of gay or delicate colours, and many adorned with the most gorgeous
plumage, and to the numbers of very large and showy butterflies which are almost every-
where to be met with, the forests of the Moluccas offer to the naturalist a very striking ex-
ample of the luxuriance and beauty of animal life in the tropics. Yet the almost entire ab-
sence of Mammalia, and of such wide-spread groups of birds as woodpeckers, thrushes,
jays, tits, and pheasants, must convince him that he is in a part of the world which has in
reality but little in common with the great Asiatic continent, although an unbroken chain of
islands seems to link them to it.
