As The Southern Part Of Sumatra Extended Eastward And Formed The
Narrow Straits Of Banca, Many Birds And Insects And
Some Mammalia
would cross from one to the other, and thus produce a general
similarity of productions, while a few
Of the older inhabitants
remained, to reveal by their distinct forms, their different
origin. Unless we suppose some such changes in physical geography
to have occurred, the presence of peculiar species of birds and
mammals in such an island as Banca is a hopeless puzzle; and I
think I have shown that the changes required are by no means so
improbable as a mere glance at the map would lead us to suppose.
For our next example let us take the great islands of Sumatra and
Java. These approach so closely together, and the chain of
volcanoes that runs through them gives such an air of unity to
the two, that the idea of their having been recently dissevered
is immediately suggested. The natives of Java, however, go
further than this; for they actually have a tradition of the
catastrophe which broke them asunder, and fix its date at not
much more than a thousand years ago. It becomes interesting,
therefore, to see what support is given to this view by the
comparison of their animal productions.
The Mammalia have not been collected with sufficient completeness
in both islands to make a general comparison of much value, and
so many species have been obtained only as live specimens in
captivity, that their locality has often been erroneously given,
the island in which they were obtained being substituted for that
from which they originally came. Taking into consideration only
those whose distribution is more accurately known, we learn that
Sumatra is, in a zoological sense, more neatly related to Borneo
than it is to Java. The great man-like apes, the elephant, the
tapir, and the Malay bear, are all common to the two former
countries, while they are absent from the latter. Of the three
long-tailed monkeys (Semnopithecus) inhabiting Sumatra, one
extends into Borneo, but the two species of Java are both
peculiar to it. So also the great Malay deer (Rusa equina), and
the small Tragulus kanchil, are common to Sumatra and Borneo, but
do not extend into Java, where they are replaced by Tragulas
javanicus. The tiger, it is true, is found in Sumatra and Java,
but not in Borneo. But as this animal is known to swim well, it
may have found its way across the Straits of Sunda, or it may
have inhabited Java before it was separated from the mainland,
and from some unknown cause have ceased to exist in Borneo.
In Ornithology there is a little uncertainty owing to the birds
of Java and Sumatra being much better known than those of Borneo;
but the ancient separation of Java as an island is well
exhibited by the large number of its species which are not found
in any of the other islands. It possesses no less than seven
pigeons peculiar to itself, while Sumatra has only one.
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