nature.

_Difference Between the Fauna of Java and that of the other great Malay
Islands._--Comparing the fauna of Java with that which may be called the
typical Malayan fauna as exhibited in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay
Peninsula, we find the following differences. No less than thirteen genera
of mammalia, each of which is known to inhabit at least two, and generally
all three, of the above-named Malayan countries, are totally absent from
Java; and they include such important forms as the elephant, the tapir, and
the Malay bear. It cannot be said that this difference depends on imperfect
knowledge, for Java is one of the oldest European settlements in the East,
and has been explored by a long succession of Dutch and English
naturalists. Every part of it is thoroughly well known, and it would be
almost as difficult to find a new mammal of any size in Europe as in Java.
Of birds there are twenty-five genera, all typically Malayan and occurring
at least in two, and for the most part in all three of the Malay countries,
which are yet absent from Java. Most of these are large and conspicuous
forms, such as jays, gapers, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, hornbills, cuckoos,
parrots, pheasants, and partridges, as impossible to have remained
undiscovered in Java as the large mammalia above referred to.

Besides these absent _genera_ there are some curious illustrations of Javan
isolation in the _species_; there being several cases in which the same
species occurs in all three of the typical Malay countries, while in Java
it is represented by an allied species. These occur chiefly among birds,
there being no less than seven species which are common to the three great
Malay countries but are represented in Java by distinct though closely
allied species.

From these facts it is impossible to doubt that Java has had a history of
its own, quite distinct from that of the other portions of the Malayan
area. {384}

_Special Relations of the Javan Fauna to that of the Asiatic
Continent._--These relations are indicated by comparatively few examples,
but they are very clear and of great importance. Among mammalia, the genus
Helictis is found in Java but in no other Malay country, though it inhabits
also North India; while two species, _Rhinoceros javanicus_ and _Lepus
kurgosa_, are natives of Indo-Chinese countries and Java, but not of
typical Malaya. In birds there are five genera or sub-genera--Zoothera,
Notodela, Crypsirhina, Allotrius,