Besides Salayer and Boutong on the south, with Peling and Bungay on the
east, the three islands of the Sula (or Zula) Archipelago also belong
zoologically to Celebes, although their position is such that it would
seem more natural to group them with the Moluccas. About 48 land birds
are now known from the Sula group, and if we reject from these, five
species which have a wide range over the Archipelago, the remainder are
much more characteristic of Celebes than of the Moluccas. Thirty-one
species are identical with those of the former island, and four are
representatives of Celebes forms, while only eleven are Moluccan
species, and two more representatives.
But although the Sula islands belong to Celebes, they are so close to
Bouru and the southern islands of the Gilolo group, that several purely
Moluccan forms have migrated there, which are quite unknown to the
island of Celebes itself; the whole thirteen Moluccan species being
in this category, thus adding to the productions of Celebes a
foreign element which does not really belong to it. In studying the
peculiarities of the Celebesian fauna, it will therefore be well to
consider only the productions of the main island.
The number of land birds in the island of Celebes is 128, and from these
we may, as before, strike out a small number of species which roam
over the whole Archipelago (often from India to the Pacific), and
which therefore only serve to disguise the peculiarities of individual
islands. These are 20 in number, and leave 108 species which we may
consider as more especially characteristic of the island. On accurately
comparing these with the birds of all the surrounding countries, we find
that only nine extend into the islands westward, and nineteen into the
islands eastward, while no less than 80 are entirely confined to the
Celebesian fauna--a degree of individuality which, considering the
situation of the island, is hardly to be equalled in any other part of
the world. If we still more closely examine these 80 species, we shall
be struck by the many peculiarities of structure they present, and by
the curious affinities with distant parts of the world which many
of them seem to indicate. These points are of so much interest and
importance that it will be necessary to pass in review all those species
which are peculiar to the island, and to call attention to whatever is
most worthy of remark.
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