The Considerable Length Of Time The
Moluccas Have Remained Isolated Is Further Indicated By The
Occurrence Of Two Peculiar Genera Of Birds, Semioptera And
Lycocorax, Which Are Found Nowhere Else.
We are able to divide this small archipelago into two well marked
groups - that of Ceram, including also Bouru.
Amboyna, Banda, and
Ke; and that of Gilolo, including Morty, Batchian, Obi, Ternate,
and other small islands. These divisions have each a considerable
number of peculiar species, no less than fifty-five being found
in the Ceram group only; and besides this, most of the separate
islands have some species peculiar to themselves. Thus Morty
island has a peculiar kingfisher, honeysucker, and starling;
Ternate has a ground-thrush (Pitta) and a flycatcher; Banda has a
pigeon, a shrike, and a Pitta; Ke has two flycatchers, a
Zosterops, a shrike, a king-crow and a cuckoo; and the remote
Timor-Laut, which should probably come into the Moluccan group,
has a cockatoo and lory as its only known birds, and both are of
peculiar species.
The Moluccas are especially rich in the parrot tribe, no less
than twenty-two species, belonging to ten genera, inhabiting
them. Among these is the large red-crested cockatoo, so commonly
seen alive in Europe, two handsome red parrots of the genus
Eclectus, and five of the beautiful crimson lories, which are
almost exclusively confined to these islands and the New Guinea
group. The pigeons are hardly less abundant or beautiful, twenty-
one species being known, including twelve of the beautiful green
fruit pigeons, the smaller kinds of which are ornamented with the
most brilliant patches of colour on the head and the under-
surface.
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