The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XIV.] NATURAL HISTORY OF TIMOR. 161require a thousand, or even five hundred years, to establish newcharacters in an animal removed to a country so different inclimate and vegetation as is Timor from the Moluccas. I havenot mentioned horses, "which are often thought to be wild inTimor, because there are no grounds whatever for such a belief.The Timor ponies have every one an owner, and are quite asmuch domesticated animals as the cattle on a South Americanliacienda.I have dwelt at some lengtli on the oi-igin of the Timoresefauna, because it appears to me a most interesting and instructiveproblem. It is very seldom that we can trace theanimals of a district so clearly as we can in this case, to twodefinite sources ; and still more rarely that they furnish suchdecisive evidence, of the time, and the manner, and the pro23ortionsof their introduction. We have here a group of OceanicIslands in miniature—islands which have never formed part ofthe adjacent lands, although so closely approaching them ; andtheir productions have the characteristics of true Oceanic Islandsslightly modified. These characteristics are, the absence of allMammalia except bats, and the occurrence of peculiar species ofbirds, insects, and land shells, which, though found nowhere else,are plainly related to those of the nearest land. Thus, we havean entire absence of Australian mammals, and the presence ofonly a few stragglers from the west, which can be accounted forin the manner already indicated. Bats are tolerably abundant.Birds have many peculiar species, with a decided relationship tothose of the two nearest masses of land. The insects have similarrelations with the birds. As an example, four species of thePapilionidse are peculiar to Timor, three others are also found inJava, and one in Australia. Of the four jDeculiar species twoare decided modifications of Javanese forms, while the othersseem allied to those of the Moluccas and CelelDes. The very fewland shells known are all, curiously enough, allied to or identicalwith Moluccan or Celebes forms. The Pieridfe (white and yellowbutterflies) which wander more, and from frequenting opengrounds are more liable to be blown out to sea, seem aboutequally related to those of Java, Australia, and the Molucccas.It has been objected to Mr. Darwin's theory,—of OceanicIslands having never been connected with the mainland,—thatthis would imply that their animal population was a matter ofchance ; it has been termed the "Jlotsain and jetsam theory," andit has been maintained that nature does not work by the " chapterof accidents." But in the case which I have here described, wehave the most positive evidence that such has been the mode ofpeopling the islands. Their productions are of that miscellaneouscharacter which we should expect from such an origin ; and tosuppose that they have been portions of Australia or of Javawill introduce perfectly gratuitous difficulties, and render itquite impossible to explain those curious relations which thebest known group of animals (the birds) have been shown toM