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termed the Rusine group of the genus Cervus. Two of these deer are confined to Timor and the Moluccan group of islands respectively. All three are closely allied to the Javan Deer (Cervus hippelaphus), and it is quite possible that they are merely dwarfed forms of this species.

Passing over, for the present, the Rodents and Bats, the Carnivora are represented in the Papuan Region by three species. These are a Cat (Felis megalotis), of which very little is known, but which is stated on competent authority to be quite a distinct species, and to be confined to the islands of Timor and Rotti; a Palm-cat (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), and a Civet (Viverra tangalunga). Of these two the Palm-cat is found in both the Moluccas and the Timor group, the Civet only in the Moluccas. These animals have in all probability been introduced by the Malays, since they are both frequently kept by them as pets in captivity.

The Order Insectivora is represented in the Papuan Sub-region by about five species of small Shrews (Crocidura), but, so far as is yet known, these occur only in the Moluccas and in Timor, and do not reach further east. Lastly, two species of Monkeys just enter the margin of the Sub-region, namely, the Common Macaque (Macacus cynomolgus), very widely distributed throughout the Oriental Region, which has crossed Wallace's Line" into Flores and Timor; and the Black Ape of Celebes (Cynopithecus niger), which has passed the narrow straits between that island and Batchian, one of the Molucca group.

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The Rodents are represented in the Papuan Sub-region by a considerable number of rats and mice of the family

Muridæ, all of them restricted to the Sub-region. One of these, remarkable for its peculiar and probably prehensile tail, is found only in the mountains of New Guinea, and has been placed in a new genus (Chiuromys). Among the Rodents also there is one very obvious intruder from the west; this is the Javan porcupine (Hystrix javanica), which in this Sub-region is found only in Timor, but is very widely distributed throughout the Oriental Malayan Islands.

Finally, the Papuan Sub-region, with its luxuriant vegetation and tropical forests, seems to be extremely favourable to the presence of Bats, of which there are more than sixty species known to occur within its limits. More especially is this the case with the large fruit-eating bats of the genus Pteropus, since about twenty out of the forty known species of this genus are found within this Subregion. This genus (Pteropus) has a remarkable area of distribution, which it is difficult to account for satisfactorily. Its range extends from Madagascar and the neighbouring Mascarene Islands through the Seychelles to India, Ceylon, Burma, and the Malayan Archipelago, and includes even Southern Japan; thence it is continued over all the Papuan Sub-region into Australia and most of the Polynesian Islands. This genus, it may be noted, seems to have a special propensity to peculiar development in insular areas. Out of about forty species of Pteropus as yet known, only two (Pteropus medius from India, and Pteropus edulis of the Malay Peninsula) are found on the main continental mass; all the other species are confined to islands, and in many cases to very small limits. For instance, one species (P. livingstonii) is restricted to the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean, three others to single

islands in the Solomon group, and a fourth is only known from the island of Lombok.1

SECTION VIII.-ANALYSIS OF THE PAPUAN MAMMAL

FAUNA

The number of genera of mammals represented in the Papuan Sub-region is fifty; of these eight are restricted to the Sub-region (namely, Proechidna, Distechurus, Dorcopsis, Chiuromys, Pteralopex, Nesonycteris, Melonycteris, and Anthops). There are also twelve genera, nearly all marsupials, common to the Papuan Sub-region and Australia; and sixteen genera common to the Papuan Sub-region and the Oriental Region. Of these, however, only six (Sus and five genera of bats) penetrate so far eastwards as New Guinea; the other ten are stragglers over "Wallace's Line" as far as the Timor group and the Moluccas only. Thirteen genera (Phalanger, Mus, and eleven genera of Bats) are found in both the Oriental Region and in the Papuan and Austral Sub-regions.

1 The most recent list of Papuan mammals, published by Dr. K. M. Heller (Abh. Mus. Dresd. vi., No. 8, 1896-97) gives the number of species now known as follows

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SECTION IX. THE MAORIAN SUB-REGION

The Maorian Sub-region includes, besides New Zealand proper, many smaller groups of islands in the sea around, such as Norfolk Island, the Kermadec group, Chatham Island, Stewart Island, Auckland Island, Campbell Island, and Macquarie Island, and probably Lord Howe's Island, though in some respects this appears to belong rather to the Australian mainland than to New Zealand.

As in the Polynesian Sub-region, there are no indigenous terrestrial mammals found in this Sub-region, the only exception being a species of rat (Mus maorium). But it is quite possible, nay, probable, that this Rat, as its name seems to imply, was brought by the invading Maoris into New Zealand from Tonga, or from wherever the Maoris originated; indeed, Mr. Thomas believes it to be identical with a Polynesian species, Mus exulans (cf. Buller, Trans. N. Z. Inst., xxv. p. 49). The only two bats recorded from New Zealand are Mystacina tuberculata, the genus as well as the species being restricted to New Zealand; and Chalinobus morio, which is also found in Australia.

The islands of New Zealand are indeed remarkable as being the only insular area on the globe, of any considerable size, which are entirely destitute of mammal-life. All the other large islands of the world possess a Mammalfauna of greater or less extent related to the continent to which they are nearest, and have consequently been termed by Mr. Wallace "continental islands." All such "continental islands" are separated by narrow seas, of no great depth, from their respective continents. New

Zealand alone, of all the larger islands of the globe, is disconnected by a considerable breadth of ocean (about 1400 miles) and also by a deep sea (more than 2000 fathoms) from the nearest point of mainland.

This fact and the absence of an indigenous Mammalfauna show that New Zealand has not been joined directly by land with Australia recently, even in a geological sense of that term; possibly it has never been so connected at all.

To determine, therefore, the geographical affinities of this Sub-region, we must turn to the birds and to the other lower groups, and so endeavour to gain an idea of the affinities of these interesting islands. In New Zealand the want of mammals has been apparently supplied in former epochs by the great development of two families of flightless birds. One of these groups, the Kiwis (Apterygida), is still represented by five or six species, although these birds are being rapidly exterminated by the British colonists. The other group, the Moas (Dinornithida), is now quite extinct, but as remains of their skin and feathers have been found in some of the caves of the Southern Islands, and as the ancient legends and songs of the Maoris contain unmistakable references to them, it is probable that they have ceased to exist only within the last few hundred years.

In addition to the flightless birds, recent and extinct, New Zealand still possesses two very singular forms of Parrots (Nestor and Stringops), for the reception of which special families have been formed; and eighteen other peculiar genera of land-birds, most of which are related more or less remotely with Australian forms. Altogether there are in New Zealand fifty-seven land-birds, belonging to thirty

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