As So Often Happens In Nature, However, The Fact Turns Out To Be
Just The Reverse Of What We Should
Have expected; and an
examination of its animal productions shows Celebes to be at
once the poorest in the number
Of its species, and the most
isolated in the character of its productions, of all the great
islands in the Archipelago. With its attendant islets it spreads
over an extent of sea hardly inferior in length and breadth to
that occupied by Borneo, while its actual land area is nearly
double that of Java; yet its Mammalia and terrestrial birds
number scarcely more than half the species found in the last-
named island. Its position is such that it could receive
immigrants from every side more readily than Java, yet in
proportion to the species which inhabit it, far fewer seem derived
from other islands, while far more are altogether peculiar to it;
and a considerable number of its animal forms are so remarkable,
as to find no close allies in any other part of the world. I now
propose to examine the best known groups of Celebesian animals in
some detail, to study their relations to those of other islands,
and to call attention to the many points of interest which they
suggest.
We know far more of the birds of Celebes than we do of any other
group of animals. No less than 191 species have been discovered,
and though no doubt, many more wading and swimming birds 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
nearly complete. I myself assiduously collected birds in Celebes
for nearly ten months, and my assistant, Mr. Allen, spent two
months in the Sula islands. The Dutch naturalist Forsten spent
two years in Northern Celebes (twenty years before my visit), and
collections of birds had also been sent to Holland from Macassar.
The French ship of discovery, L'Astrolabe, also touched at Menado
and procured collections. Since my return home, the Dutch
naturalists Rosenberg and Bernstein have made extensive
collections both in North Celebes and in the Sula islands; yet
all their researches combined have only added eight species of
land birds to those forming part of my own collection - a fact
which renders it almost certain that there are very few more to
discover.
Besides Salayer and Boutong on the south, with Peling and Bungay
on the east, the three islands of the Sula (or Zula) Archipelago
also belong zoologically to Celebes, although their position is
such that it would seem more natural to group them with the
Moluccas. About 48 land birds are now known from the Sula group,
and if we reject from these, five species which have a wide range
over the Archipelago, the remainder are much more characteristic
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 eleven are Moluccan species, and two
more representatives.
But although the Sula islands belong to Celebes, they are so
close to Bouru and the southern islands of the Gilolo group, that
several purely Moluccan forms have migrated there, which are
quite unknown to the island of Celebes itself; the whole thirteen
Moluccan species being in this category, thus adding to the
productions of Celebes a foreign element which does not really
belong to it. In studying the peculiarities of the Celebesian
fauna, it will therefore be well to consider only the productions
of the main island.
The number of land birds in the island of Celebes is 128, and
from these we may, as before, strike out a small number of
species which roam over the whole Archipelago (often from India
to the Pacific), and which therefore only serve to disguise the
peculiarities of individual islands. These are 20 in number, and
leave 108 species which we may consider as more especially
characteristic of the island. On accurately comparing these with
the birds of all the surrounding countries, we find that only
nine extend into the islands westward, and nineteen into the
islands eastward, while no less than 80 are entirely confined to
the Celebesian fauna - a degree of individuality which,
considering the situation of the island, is hardly to be equalled
in any other part of the world. If we still more closely examine
these 80 species, we shall be struck by the many peculiarities of
structure they present, and by the curious affinities with
distant parts of the world which many of them seem to indicate.
These points are of so much interest and importance that it will
be necessary to pass in review all those species which are
peculiar to the island, and to call attention to whatever is most
worthy of remark.
Six species of the Hawk tribe are peculiar to Celebes; three of
these are very distinct from allied birds which range over all
India to Java and Borneo, and which thus seem to be suddenly
changed on entering Celebes. Another (Accipiter trinotatus) is a
beautiful hawk, with elegant rows of large round white spots on
the tail, rendering it very conspicuous and quite different from
any other known bird of the family. Three owls are also peculiar;
and one, a barn owl (Strix rosenbergii), is very much larger and
stronger than its ally Strix javanica, which ranges from India
through all the islands as far as Lombock.
Of the ten Parrots found in Celebes, eight are peculiar. Among
them are two species of the singular raquet-tailed parrots
forming the genus Prioniturus, and which are characterised by
possessing two long spoon-shaped feathers in the tail. Two allied
species are found in the adjacent island of Mindanao, one of the
Philippines, and this form of tail is found in no other parrots
in the whole world. A small species of Lorikeet (Trichoglossus
flavoviridis) seems to have its nearest ally in Australia.
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