The bats or aerial mammals, on the other hand, are
numerous - not less than twenty-five species being already known.
But even this exceeding poverty of terrestrial mammals does not
at all represent the real poverty of the Moluccas in this class
of animals; for, as we shall soon see, there is good reason to
believe that several of the species have been introduced by man,
either purposely or by accident.
The only quadrumanous animal in the group is the curious baboon-
monkey, Cynopithecus nigrescens, already described as being one
of the characteristic animals of Celebes. This is found only in
the island of Batchian; and it seems so much out of place there
as it is difficult to imagine how it could have reached the
island by any natural means of dispersal, and yet not have passed
by the same means over the narrow strait to Gilolo - that it seems
more likely to have originated from some individuals which had
escaped from confinement, these and similar animals being often
kept as pets by the Malays, and carried about in their praus.
Of all the carnivorous animals of the Archipelago the only one
found in the Moluccas is the Viverra tangalunga, which inhabits
both Batchian and Bouru, and probably come of the other islands.
I am inclined to think that this also may have been introduced
accidentally, for it is often made captive by the Malays, who
procure civet from it, and it is an animal very restless and
untameable, and therefore likely to escape.
