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

XVIII.] NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBES. 209the situation of the island, is hardly to be equalled in anyother part of the world. If we still more closely examine these80 species, we shall be struck by the many peculiarities ofstructure they present, and by the curious affinities with distantparts of the world which many of them seem to indicate. Thesepoints are of so much interest and importance that it will benecessary to pass in review all those sj^ecies which are jDeculiarto the island, and to call attention to whatever is most worthyof remark.Six species of the Hawk tribe are peculiar to Celebes ; three ofthese are very distinct from allied birds which range over allIndia to Java and Borneo, and which thus seem to be suddenlychanged on entering Celebes. Another (Accipiter ti'inotatus), isa beautiful hawk, with elegant rows of large round white spotson the tail, rendering it very conspicuous and quite differentfrom any other known bird of the family. Three owls are alsopeculiar ; and one, a barn owl (Strix rosenbergii), is very muchlarger and stronger than its ally Strix javanica, which rangesfrom India through all the islands as far as Lombock.Of the ten Parrots found in Celebes, eight are peculiar.Amongthem are two species of the singular raquet-tailed parrots formingthe genus Prioniturus, and whicli are characterized bypossessing two long spoon-shaped feathers in the tail. Twoallied species are found in the adjacent island of Mindanao, oneof the Philippines, and this form of tail is found in no otherparrots in the whole world. A small species of Lorikeet(Trichoglossus flavoviridis) seems to have its nearest ally inAustralia.The three Woodpeckers which inhabit the island are allpeculiar, and are allied to sjDecies found in Java and Borneo,although very different from them all.Among the three peculiar Cuckoos two are very remarkable.Pha^nicoiihaus callirhynchus is the largest and handsomestspecies of its genus, and is distinguished by the three coloursof its beak, bright yellow, red, and black. Eudynamis melanorynchusdiffers from all its allies in having a jet-black bill,whereas the other species of the genus always have it green,yellow, or reddish.The Celebes Roller (Coracias temmincki) is an interestingexample of one species of a genus being cut off from the rest.There ai'e species of Coracias in Europe, Asia, and Africa, butnone in the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, or Borneo. Thepresent species seems therefore quite out of place ; and what isstill more curious is the fact, that it is not at all like any of theAsiatic species, but seems more to resemble those of Africa.In the next family, the Bee-eaters, is another equallyisolated bird, Meropogon forsteni, which combines the charactersof African and Indian Bee-eaters, and wliose only near ally,Meropogon breweri, was discovered by M. Du Chaillu in WestAfrica !^