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

300 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.land mammals ai-e exceedingly few in number, only ten beingyet known from the entire grouj). The bats or aerial mammals,on the other hand, are numerous—not less than twenty-livespecies being already known. But even tliis exceeding povertyof teri'estiial mammals does not at all represent the real povertyof the Moluccas in this class of animals ; for, as we shall soon see,there is good reason to believe that several of the siDecies havebeen introduced by man, either purposely or by accident.The only quadrumanous animal in the group is the curiousbaboon-monkey, Cynopithecus nigrescens, already described asbeing one of tlie characteristic animals of Celebes. This is foundonly in the island of Batchian ; and it seems so much out ofplace there—as it is difficult to imagine how it could havereached the island by any natui-al means of dispersal, and yetnot liave passed by the same means over the narrow strait toGilolo— that it seems more likely to have originated from someindividuals which had escaped from confinement, tliese andsimilar animals being often kept as jDets by the Malays, andcarried about in their praus.Of all the carnivorous animals of the Archipelago the onlyone found in the Moluccas is the Viverra tangalunga, whichinhabits both Batchian and Bouru, and probably some of theother islands. I am inclined to tliink that this also may havebeen introduced accidentally, for it is often made captive by theMalays, who procure civet from it, and it is an animal veryrestless and untamable, and thei'efore likely to escajDe. Thisview is rendered still more probable by what Antonio de Morgatells us was the custom in the PhilipiDines in 1602. He saysthat " the natives of Mindanao carry about civet-cats in cages,and sell them in the islands ; and they take the civet from them,and let them go again." The same species is common in thePhilippines and in all the lai'ge islands of the Indo-Malayregion.The only Moluccan ruminant is a deer, which was once supposedto be a distinct species, but is now generally considered tobe a slight variety of the Busa hipi^elaphus of Java. Deer areoften tamed and petted, and their flesh is so much esteemed byall Malays, that it is very natural they should endeavour tointroduce them into the remote islands in which they settled,and whose luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for theirsubsistence.The strange babirusa of Celebes is also found in Bouru, but inno other Moluccan island, and it is somewhat difficult to imaginehow it got there. It is true that there is some approximationbetween the birds of the Sula Islands (where the babirusa is alsofound) and those of Bouru, which seems to indicate that theseislands have recently been closer together, or that some interveningland has disappeared. At this time the babirusa mayhave entered Bouru, since it probably swims as well as its alliesthe pigs. These are spread all over the Archipelago, even to