in some degree represented the richness and variety of the whole
Archipelago, while we should not expect much individuality in a country,
so situated, that it would seem as if it were pre-eminently fitted to
receive stragglers and immigrants from all around.
As so often happens in nature, however, the fact turns out to be just
the reverse of what we should have expected; and an examination of its
animal productions shows Celebes to be at once the poorest in the
number of its species, and the most isolated in the character of its
productions, of all the great islands in the Archipelago. With its
attendant islets it spreads over an extent of sea hardly inferior in
length and breadth to that occupied by Borneo, while its actual land
area is nearly double that of Java; yet its Mammalia and terrestrial
birds number scarcely more than half the species found in the last-named
island. Its position is such that it could receive immigrants from every
side more readily than Java, yet in proportion to the species which
inhabit it, far fewer seem derived from other islands, while far more
are altogether peculiar to it; and a considerable number of its animal
forms are so remarkable, as to find no close allies in any other part of
the world. I now propose to examine the best known groups of Celebesian
animals in some detail, to study their relations to those of other
islands, and to call attention to the many points of interest which they
suggest.
We know far more of the birds of Celebes than we do of any other group
of animals. No less than 191 species have been discovered, and though
no doubt, many more wading and swimming birds have to be added; yet the
list of land birds, 144 in number, and which for our present purpose
are much the most important, must be very nearly complete. I myself
assiduously collected birds in Celebes for nearly ten months, and my
assistant, Mr. Allen, spent two months in the Sula islands. The Dutch
naturalist Forsten spent two years in Northern Celebes (twenty years
before my visit), and collections of birds had also been sent to Holland
from Macassar. The French ship of discovery, L'Astrolabe, also touched
at Menado and procured collections. Since my return home, the Dutch
naturalists Rosenberg and Bernstein have made extensive collections
both in North Celebes and in the Sula islands; yet all their researches
combined have only added eight species of land birds to those forming
part of my own collection--a fact which renders it almost certain that
there are very few more to discover.
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