Indo-Malay islands as well as in the Moluccas; and which thus seem to be
unable, from some unknown cause, to obtain a footing in the intervening island.
In Birds we have the two families of Podargidae and Laniadae, which range over
the whole Archipelago and into Australia, and which yet have no representative
in Celebes. The genera Ceyx among Kingfishers, Criniger among Thrushes,
Rhipidura among Flycatchers, Calornis among Starlings, and Erythrura among
Finches, are all found in the Moluccas as well as in Borneo and Java—but not a
single species belonging to any one of them is found in Celebes. Among insects,
the large genus of Rose-chafers, Lomaptera, is found in every country and island
between India and New Guinea, except Celebes. This unexpected absence of
many groups, from one limited district in the very centre of their area of
distribution, is a phenomenon not altogether unique, but, I believe, nowhere so
well marked as in this case; and it certainly adds considerably to the strange
character of this remarkable island.
The anomalies and eccentricities in the natural history of Celebes which I
have endeavoured to sketch in this CHAPTER, all point to an origin in a remote
antiquity. The history of extinct animals teaches us that their distribution in time
and in space are strikingly similar. The rule is, that just as the productions of
adjacent areas usually resemble each other closely, so do the productions of
successive periods in the same area; and as the productions of remote areas
generally differ widely, so do the productions of the same area at remote epochs.
We are therefore led irresistibly to the conclusion, that change of species, still
more of generic and of family form, is a matter of time. But time may have led
to a change of species in one country, while in another the forms have been more
permanent, or the change may have gone on at an equal rate but in a different
manner in both. In either case, the amount of individuality in the productions of
a district will be to some extent a measure of the time that a district has been
isolated from those that surround it. Judged by this standard, Celebes must be
one of the oldest parts of the Archipelago. It probably dates from a period not
only anterior to that when Borneo, Java, and Sumatra were separated from the
continent, but from that still more remote epoch when the land that now
constitutes these islands had not risen above the ocean.
Such an antiquity is necessary, to account for the number of animal forms it
possesses, which show no relation to those of India or Australia, but rather with
those of Africa; and we are led to speculate on the possibility of there having
once existed a continent in the Indian Ocean which might serve as a bridge to
connect these distant countries. Now it is a curious fact, that the existence of
such a land has been already thought necessary, to account for the distribution of