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

xxvii.] THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MOLUCCAS. 301several of the smaller islands, and in many cases the species arepeculiar. It is evident, therefore, that they have some naturalmeans of dispersal. There is a popular idea that pigs cannotswim, but Sir Charles Lyell has shown that this is a mistake. Inhis Pi-inciples of Geology (10th edit. vol. ii. p. 355) he adducesevidence to show that pigs have swum many miles at sea, andare able to swim with great ease and swiftness. I have myselfseen a wild pig swimming across the arm of tlie sea thatseparates Singapore from the Peninsula of Malacca, and we thushave exi^lained the curious fact, that of all the large mammalsof the Indian region, pigs alone extend beyond the Moluccas andas far as New Guinea, although it is somewhat curious that theyhave not found their way to Australia.The little slu'ew, Sorex myosurus, which is common in Sumatra,Borneo, and Java, is also found in the larger islands ofthe Moluccas, to which it may have been accidentally conveyedin native praus.This completes the list of tlie placental mammals which areso characteristic of the Indian region ; and we see that, withthe single exception of the pig, all may very probably havebeen introduced by man, since all except the pig are of speciesidentical with those now abounding in the great Malay islands,or in Celebes.The four remaining mammals are Marsupials, an order of theclass Mammalia, which is very characteristic of the Australianfauna ; and these are pi'obably true natives of the Moluccas,since they are either of peculiar species, or if found elsewhereare natives only of New Guinea or North Austi-alia. Tlie first isthe small flying opossum, Belideus ariel, a beautiful little animal,exactly like a small flying squirrel in appearance, but belongingto the marsupial order. The other three are species of thecurious genus Cuscus, which is peculiar to the xlustro-Malayanregion. These are opossum-like animals, with a long prehensiletail, of which the terminal half is generally bare. They havesmall heads, large eyes, and a dense covering of woolly fur, whichis often pure white with irregular black spots or blotches, orsometimes ashy brown with or without wliite spots. They livein trees, feeding upon the leaves, of which they devour largequantities. They move about slowly, and are difiicult to kill,owing to the thickness of their fur, and their tenacity of life.A heavy charge of sliot will often lodge in the skin and do themno harm, and even breaking the spine or piercing the brain willnot kill them for some Jiours. The natives eveiywhere eat theirflesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them byclimbing ; so that it is wonderful they have not been exterminated.It may be, however, that their dense woolly furprotects them from birds of prey, and the islands tliey live inare too thinly inhabited for man to be able to exterminate them.The figure represents Cuscus ornatus, a new species discoveredby me in Batchian, and which also inhabits Ternate. It is