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

444 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.known, but the occurrence of crimson lories, which are quiteabsent from Austi-alia, and of cockatoos allied to those of NewGuinea and the Moluccas, shows that they belong to the Papuangroup ; and we are thus able to define the Malay Archipelagoas extending eastward to the Solomon's Islands. New Caledoniaand the New Hebrides, on the other hand, seem moi-enearly allied to Australia ; and the rest of the islands of thePacific, though very poor in all forms of life, possess afew peculiarities which compel us to class tliem as aseparate group. Although as a matter of convenience I havealways separated the Moluccas as a distinct zoological groupfrom New Guinea, I have at the same time pointed out that itsfauna was chiefly derived from that island, just as that of Timorwas chiefly derived from Australia. If we were dividing theTHE GEEAT-SHIELDED GRASSHOPPEK.Australian region for zoological purposes alone, we should formtliree great groups : one comprising Australia, Timor, andTasmania ; another New Guinea, witli the islands from Bouruto tlie Solomon's group ; and the third comprising the greaterpart of the Pacific Islands.The relation of the New Guinea fauna to that of Australia isvery close. It is best marked in the Mammalia by the abundanceof marsupials, and the almost complete absence of allother terrestrial forms. In birds it is less striking, althoughstill very clear, for all the remarkable old-world forms whichare absent from the one are equally so from the other, such as