e modification of the species; while the continued stream of
immigrants from Java, would, by continual intercrossing, check such
modification. This view will not, however, explain all the facts; for
the character of the fauna of the Timorese group is indicated as well by
the forms which are absent from it as by those which it contains, and is
by this kind of evidence shown to be much more Australian than Indian.
No less than twenty-nine genera, all more or less abundant in Java, and
most of which range over a wide area, are altogether absent; while of
the equally diffused Australian genera only about fourteen are wanting.
This would clearly indicate that there has been, until recently, a wide
separation from Java; and the fact that the islands of Bali and Lombock
are small, and are almost wholly volcanic, and contain a smaller number
of modified forms than the other islands, would point them out as of
comparatively recent origin. A wide arm of the sea probably occupied
their place at the time when Timor was in the closest proximity to
Australia; and as the subterranean fires were slowly piling up the now
fertile islands of Bali and Lombock, the northern shores of Australia
would be sinking beneath the ocean. Some such changes as have been here
indicated, enable us to understand how it happens, that though the birds
of this group are on the whole almost as much Indian as Australian, yet
the species which are peculiar to the group are mostly Australian in
character; and also why such a large number of common Indian forms
which extend through Java to Bali, should not have transmitted a single
representative to the island further east.

The Mammalia of Timor as well as those of the other islands of the
group are exceedingly scanty, with the exception of bats. These last are
tolerably abundant, and no doubt many more remain to be discovered. Out
of fifteen species known from Timor, nine are found also in Java, or the
islands west of it; three are Moluccan species, most of which are also
found in Australia, and the rest are peculiar to Timor.

The land mammals are only seven in number, as follows: 1. The common
monkey, Macacus cynomolgus, which is found in all the Indo-Malayan
islands, and has spread from Java through Bali and Lombock to Timor.
This species is very frequent on the banks of rivers, and may have
been conveyed from island to island on trees carried down by hoods. 2.
Paradoxurus fasciatus; a civet cat, very commo