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

208 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chai'.covered, and though no doubt many more wading and swimmingbirds have to be added, yet the list of land birds, 144 in number,and which for our present purpose are much the most important,must be very neai-ly complete. I myself assiduously collectedbirds in Celebes for nearly ten months, and my assistant, Mr.Allen, spent two months in the Sula islands. The Dutchnaturalist Forsten spent two years in Northern Celebes (twentyyears before my visit), and collections of birds had also been sentto Holland from Macassar. The French ship of discovery,UAstrolabe, also touched at Menado and procured collections.Since my i-eturn home, the Dutch naturalists Rosenberg andBernstein have made extensive collections both in North Celebesand in the Sula islands ;yet all their researches combined haveonly added eight species of land birds to those forming part ofmy own collection—a fact which renders it almost certain thatthere are very few more to discover.^Besides Salayer and Boutong on the south, with Peling andBungay on the east, the three islands of the Sula (or Zula)Archipelago also belong zoologically to Celebes, although theirposition is such, that it would seem more natural to group themwith the Moluccas. About 48 land birds are now known fromthe Sula grouj), and if we reject from these five species whichha^'e a wide range over the Ai'chipelago, the remainder aremuch more chai-acteristic of Celebes than of the Moluccas.Thirty-one species are identical with those of the former island,and four are representatives of Celebes forms, while only elevenare Moluccan species, and two more representatives.But although the Sula islands belong to Celebes, they are soclose to Bouru and the southern islands of the Gilolo group,that several jiurely ]\Ioluccan forms have migrated there, whichai'e quite unknown to the island of Celebes itself ; the wholethirteen Moluccan species being in this category, thus adding tothe i^roductions of Celebes a foreign element which does notreally belong to it. In studying the jDeculiarities of the Celebesianfauna, it will tlierefore be well to consider only the productionsof tlie main island.The number of land Ijirds in the island of Celebes is 128, andfrom these we may, as before, strike out a small number ofspecies which roam over the whole Archipelago (often fromIndia to the Pacific), and which therefore only serve to disguisethe peculiarities of individual islands. These are 20 in number,and leave 108 species wliicli we may consider as more especiallycharacteristic of the island. On accurately comparing these withthe birds of all the surrounding countries, we find that only nineextend into tlie islands west^\'ard, and nineteen into the islandseastward, while no less than 80 are entirely confined to theCelebesiun fauna—a degree of individuality which, considering1 Subsequently Dr. Bernhard Meyer collected birds in Minaliasa and the TogianIslands in the Gulf of Toniiiii, and has added fourteen species to the Celobesian avifauna,wliieh now consists of 20.') species, 148 of which are land birds.