The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

;350 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi.localities and which must therefore be held to be typical Malayangroups, the following are absent from Java : Viverra,Gyrmiopus, Lutra, Helarctos, Tapirus, Elephas, and Gymnura;while of those known to occur in two, and which, owing to ourimperfect knowledge, may very probably one day be discovered inthe third, the following are equally wanting : Simia, Siamanga,Hemigalea, Paguma, Rhinoscinrus, and Rhizomys. It may besaid this is only negative evidence, but in the case of Java it ismuch more, because this island is not only the best known ofany in the archipelago, but there is perhaps no portion ofBritish India of equal extent so well known. It is one of theoldest of the Dutch possessions and the seat of their colonialgovernment ;good roads traverse it in every direction, and experiencednaturalists have been resident in various parts ofitfor years together, and have visited every mountain and everyforest, aided by bands of diligent native collectors. Weshould be almost as likely to find new species of mammaliain Central Europe as in Java ; and therefore the absence ofsuch animals as the Malay bear, the elephant, tapir, gymnura,and even less conspicuous forms, must be accepted as apositive fact.In the other islands there are still vast tracts of forest in thehands of natives and utterly unexplored, and any similar absencein their case will prove little;yet on making the same comparisonin the case of Borneo, the most peculiar and the leastknown of the other portions of the sub-region, we find only2 genera absent which 'are found in the three other divisions,and only 3 which are found in two others. A fact to be notedalso is, that the only genus found in Java but not in other partsof the sub-region (Helirtis) occurs again in North India; andthat some Javan species, as Rhinoceros javanicus, and Lepus kurgosaoccur again in the Indo-Chinese sub-region, but not in theMalayan.Among the birds we meet with facts of a similar importand though the absence of certain types from Java isnot quiteso certain as among the mammalia, this is more than balancedby the increased number of such deficiencies, so that if a few