Thus If We
Compare The Birds Of The Moluccas With Those Of India, As Given
In Mr. Jerdon's Work, We
Find that the three groups of the
parrots, kingfishers, and pigeons, form nearly _one-third_ of the
whole land-birds
In the former, while they amount to only _one-
twentieth_ in the latter country. On the other hand, such wide-
spread groups as the thrushes, warblers, and finches, which in
India form nearly _one-third_ of all the land-birds, dwindle down
in the Moluccas to _one-fourteenth._
The reason of these peculiarities appears to be, that the
Moluccan fauna has been almost entirely derived from that of New
Guinea, in which country the same deficiency and the same
luxuriance is to be observed. Out of the seventy-eight genera in
which the Moluccan land-birds may be classed, no less than
seventy are characteristic of Yew Guinea, while only six belong
specially to the Indo-Malay islands. But this close resemblance
to New Guinea genera does not extend to the species, for no less
than 140 out of the 195 land-birds are peculiar to the Moluccan
islands, while 32 are found also in New Guinea, and 15 in the
Indo-Malay islands. These facts teach us, that though the birds
of this group have evidently been derived mainly from New Guinea,
yet the immigration has not been a recent one, since there has
been time for the greater portion of the species to have become
changed. We find, also, that many very characteristic New Guinea
forms lave not entered the Moluccas at all, while others found in
Ceram and Gilolo do not extend so far west as Bouru. Considering,
further, the absence of most of the New Guinea mammals from the
Moluccas, we are led to the conclusion that these islands are not
fragments which have been separated from New Guinea, but form a
distinct insular region, which has been upheaved independently at
a rather remote epoch, and during all the mutations it has
undergone has been constantly receiving immigrants from that
great and productive island. 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. Next to these come the kingfishers, including sixteen
species, almost all of which are beautiful, end many are among
the most brilliantly-coloured birds that exist.
One of the most curious groups of birds, the Megapodii, or mound-
makers, is very abundant in the Moluccas. They are gallinaceous
birds, about the size of a small fowl, and generally of a dark
ashy or sooty colour, and they have remarkably large and strong
feet and long claws. They are allied to the "Maleo" of Celebes,
of which an account has already been given, but they differ in
habits, most of these birds frequenting the scrubby jungles along
the sea-shore, where the soil is sandy, and there is a
considerable quantity of debris, consisting of sticks, shells,
seaweed, leaves, &c. Of this rubbish the Megapodius forms immense
mounds, often six or eight feet high and twenty or thirty feet in
diameter, which they are enabled to do with comparative ease, by
means of their large feet, with which they can grasp and throw
backwards a quantity of material. In the centre of this mound, at
a depth of two or three feet, the eggs are deposited, and are
hatched by the gentle heat produced by the fermentation of the
vegetable matter of the mound. When I first saw these mounds in
the island of Lombock, I could hardly believe that they were made
by such small birds, but I afterwards met with them frequently,
and have once or twice come upon the birds engaged in making
them. They run a few steps backwards, grasping a quantity of
loose material in one foot, and throw it a long way behind them.
When once properly buried the eggs seem to be no more cared for,
the young birds working their way up through the heap of rubbish,
and running off at once into the forest. They come out of the egg
covered with thick downy feathers, and have no tail, although the
wings are full developed.
I was so fortunate as to discover a new species (Megapodius
wallacei), which inhibits Gilolo, Ternate, and Bouru. It is the
handsomest bird of the genus, being richly banded with reddish
brown on the back and wings; and it differs from the other
species in its habits.
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