have been introduced accidentally, for it is often made captive by the Malays,
who procure civet from it, and it is an animal very restless and untameable, and
therefore likely to escape. This view is rendered still more probable by what
Antonio de Morga tells us was the custom in the Philippines in 1602. He says
that "the natives of Mindanao carry about civet-cats in cages, and sell them in
the islands; and they take the civet from them, and let them go again." The same
species is common in the Philippines and in all the large islands of the Indo-
Malay region.
The only Moluccan ruminant is a deer, which was once supposed to be a
distinct species, but is now generally considered to be a slight variety of the
Rusa hippelaphus of Java. Deer are often tamed and petted, and their flesh is so
much esteemed by all Malays, that it is very natural they should endeavour to
introduce them into the remote islands in which they settled, and whose
luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for their subsistence.
The strange babirusa of Celebes is also found in Bouru; but in no other
Moluccan island, and it is somewhat difficult to imagine how it got there. It is
true that there is some approximation between the birds of the Sula Islands
(where the babirusa is also found) and those of Bouru, which seems to indicate
that these islands have recently been closer together, or that some intervening
land has disappeared. At this time the babirusa may have entered Bouru, since it
probably swims as well as its allies the pigs. These are spread all over the
Archipelago, even to several of the smaller islands, and in many cases the
species are peculiar. It is evident, therefore, that they have some natural means
of dispersal. There is a popular idea that pigs cannot swim, but Sir Charles Lyell
has shown that this is a mistake. In his "Principles of Geology" (10th Edit. vol. ii
p. 355) he adduces evidence to show that pigs have swum many miles at sea, and
are able to swim with great ease and swiftness. I have myself seen a wild pig
swimming across the arm of the sea that separates Singapore from the Peninsula
of Malacca, and we thus have explained the curious fact, that of all the large
mammals of the Indian region, pigs alone extend beyond the Moluccas and as far
as New Guinea, although it is somewhat curious that they have not found their
way to Australia.
The little shrew, Sorex myosurus, which is common in Sumatra, Borneo, and
Java, is also found in the larger islands of the Moluccas, to which it may have
been accidentally conveyed in native praus.
This completes the list of the placental mammals which are so characteristic
of the Indian region; and we see that, with the single exception of the pig, all
may very probably have been introduced by man, since all except the pig are of