water, and are drifted by winds and currents to distant shores. Pigeons, and other
fruit-eating birds, are also the means of distributing plants, since the seeds
readily germinate after passing through their bodies. It thus happens that plants
which grow on shores and lowlands have a wide distribution, and it requires an
extensive knowledge of the species of each island to determine the relations of
their floras with any approach to accuracy. At present we have no such complete
knowledge of the botany of the several islands of the Archipelago; and it is only
by such striking phenomena as the occurrence of northern and even European
genera on the summits of the Javanese mountains that we can prove the former
connection of that island with the Asiatic continent. With land animals, however,
the case is very different. Their means of passing a wide expanse of sea are far
more restricted. Their distribution has been more accurately studied, and we
possess a much more complete knowledge of such groups as mammals and birds
in most of the islands, than we do of the plants. It is these two classes which will
supply us with most of our facts as to the geographical distribution of organized
beings in this region.
The number of Mammalia known to inhabit the Indo-Malay region is very
considerable, exceeding 170 species. With the exception of the bats, none of
these have any regular means of passing arms of the sea many miles in extent,
and a consideration of their distribution must therefore greatly assist us in
determining whether these islands have ever been connected with each other or
with the continent since the epoch of existing species.
The Quadrumana or monkey tribe form one of the most characteristic features
of this region. Twenty-four distinct species are known to inhabit it, and these are
distributed with tolerable uniformity over the islands, nine being found in Java,
ten in the Malay peninsula, eleven in Sumatra, and thirteen in Borneo. The great
man-like Orangutans are found only in Sumatra and Borneo; the curious
Siamang (next to them in size) in Sumatra and Malacca; the long-nosed monkey
only in Borneo; while every island has representatives of the Gibbons or long-
armed apes, and of monkeys. The lemur-like animals, Nycticebus, Tarsius, and
Galeopithecus, are found on all the islands.
Seven species found on the Malay peninsula extend also into Sumatra, four
into Borneo, and three into Java; while two range into Siam and Burma, and one
into North India. With the exception of the Orangutan, the Siamang, the Tarsius
spectrum, and the Galeopithecus, all the Malayan genera of Quadrumana are
represented in India by closely allied species, although, owing to the limited
range of most of these animals, so few are absolutely identical.
Of Carnivora, thirty-three species are known from the Indo-Malay region, of