The Cassowary Is Distinct; The
Kingfishers, Parrots, Pigeons, Flycatchers, Honeysuckers,
Thrushes, And Cuckoos, Are Almost Always Quite Distinct Species.
More
Than this, at least twenty genera, which are common to New
Guinea and Aru, do not extend into Ceram, indicating
With a force
which every naturalist will appreciate, that the two latter
countries have received their faunas in a radically different
manner. Again, a true kangaroo is found in Aru, and the same
species occurs in Mysol, which is equally Papuan in its
productions, while either the same, or one closely allied to it,
inhabits New Guinea; but no such animal is found in Ceram, which
is only sixty miles from Mysol. Another small marsupial animal
(Perameles doreyanus) is common to Aru and New Guinea. The
insects show exactly the same results. The butterflies of Aru are
all either New Guinea species, or very slightly modified forms;
whereas those of Ceram are more distinct than are the birds of
the two countries.
It is now generally admitted that we may safely reason on such
facts as those, which supply a link in the defective geological
record. The upward and downward movements which any country has
undergone, and the succession of such movements, can be
determined with much accuracy; but geology alone can tell us
nothing of lands which have entirely disappeared beneath the
ocean. Here physical geography and the distribution of animals
and plants are of the greatest service. By ascertaining the depth
of the seas separating one country from another, we can form some
judgment of the changes which are taking place. If there are
other evidences of subsidence, a shallow sea implies a former
connexion of the adjacent lands; but iŁ this evidence is wanting,
or if there is reason to suspect a rising of the land, then the
shallow sea may be the result of that rising, and may indicate
that the two countries will be joined at some future time, but
not that they have previously been so. The nature of the animals
and plants inhabiting these countries will, however, almost
always enable us to determine this question. Mr. Darwin has shown
us how we may determine in almost every case, whether an island
has ever been connected with a continent or larger land, by the
presence or absence of terrestrial Mammalia and reptiles. What he
terms "oceanic islands "possess neither of these groups of
animals, though they may have a luxuriant vegetation, and a fair
number of birds, insects, and landshells; and we therefore
conclude that they have originated in mid-ocean, and have never
been connected with the nearest masses of land. St. Helena,
Madeira, and New Zealand are examples of oceanic islands. They
possess all other classes of life, because these have means of
dispersion over wide spaces of sea, which terrestrial mammals and
birds have not, as is fully explained in Sir Charles Lyell's
"Principles of Geology," and Mr. Darwin's "Origin of Species." On
the other hand, an island may never have been actually connected
with the adjacent continents or islands, and yet may possess
representatives of all classes of animals, because many
terrestrial mammals and some reptiles have the means of passing
over short distances of sea.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 136 of 213
Words from 70650 to 71185
of 111511