The Malay Archipelago

b >> by Alfred Russell Wallace >> The Malay Archipelago

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Having seen a good many of the natives of Bouru from different
villages, and from distant parts of the island, I feel convinced
that they consist of two distinct races now partially
amalgamated. The larger portion are Malays of the Celebes type,
often exactly similar to the Tomóre people of East Celebes, whom
I found settled in Batchian; while others altogether resemble the
Alfuros of Ceram.

The influx of two races can easily be accounted for. The Sula
Islands, which are closely connected with East Celebes, approach
to within forty miles of the north coast of Bouru, while the
island of Manipa offers an easy point of departure for the people
of Ceram. I was confirmed in this view by finding that the
languages of Bouru possessed distinct resemblances to that of
Sula, as well as to those of Ceram.

Soon after we had arrived at Waypoti, Ali had seen a beautiful
little bird of the genus Pitta, which I was very anxious to
obtain, as in almost every island the species are different, and
none were yet known from Bourn. He and my other hunter continued
to see it two or three times a week, and to hear its peculiar
note much oftener, but could never get a specimen, owing to its
always frequenting the most dense thorny thickets, where only
hasty glimpses of it could be obtained, and at so short a
distance that it would be difficult to avoid blowing the bird to
pieces. Ali was very much annoyed that he could not get a
specimen of this bird, in going after which he had already
severely, wounded his feet with thorns; and when we had only two
days more to stay, he went of his own accord one evening to sleep
at a little but in the forest some miles off, in order to have a
last try for it at daybreak, when many birds come out to feed,
and are very intent on their morning meal. The next evening he
brought me home two specimens, one with the head blown completely
off, and otherwise too much injured to preserve, the other in
very good order, and which I at once saw to be a new species,
very like the Pitta celebensis, but ornamented with a square
patch of bright red on the nape of the neck.

The next day after securing this prize we returned to Cajeli, and
packing up my collections left Bouru by the steamer. During our
two days' stay at Ternate, I took on board what baggage I had
left there, and bade adieu to all my friends. We then crossed
over to Menado, on our way to Macassar and Java, and I finally
quitted the Moluccas, among whose luxuriant and beautiful islands
I had wandered for more than three years.

My collections in Bouru, though not extensive, were of
considerable interest; for out of sixty-six species of birds
which I collected there, no less than seventeen were new, or had
not been previously found in any island of the Moluccas. Among
these were two kingfishers, Tanysiptera acis and Ceyx Cajeli; a
beautiful sunbird, Nectarines proserpina; a handsome little black
and white flycatcher, Monarcha loricata, whose swelling throat
was beautifully scaled with metallic blue; and several of less
interest. I also obtained a skull of the babirusa, one specimen
of which was killed by native hunters during my residence at
Cajeli.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MOLUCCAS.

THE Moluccas consist of three large islands, Gilolo, Ceram, and
Bouru, the two former being each about two hundred miles long;
and a great number of smaller isles and islets, the most
important of which are Batchian, Morty, Obi, Ke, Timor-Laut, and
Amboyna; and among the smaller ones, Ternate, Tidore, Kaióa, and
Banda. They occupy a space of ten degrees of latitude by eight of
longitude, and they are connected by groups of small islets to
New Guinea on the east, the Philippines on the north, Celebes on
the west, and Timor on the south. It will be as well to bear in
mind these main features of extent and geographical position,
while we survey their animal productions and discuss their
relations to the countries which surround them on every side in
almost equal proximity.

We will first consider the Mammalia or warm-blooded quadrupeds,
which present us with some singular anomalies. The land mammals
are exceedingly few in number, only ten being yet known from the
entire group. The bats or aerial mammals, on the other hand, are
numerous--not less than twenty-five species being already known.
But even this exceeding poverty of terrestrial mammals does not
at all represent the real poverty of the Moluccas in this class
of animals; for, as we shall soon see, there is good reason to
believe that several of the species have been introduced by man,
either purposely or by accident.

The only quadrumanous animal in the group is the curious baboon-
monkey, Cynopithecus nigrescens, already described as being one
of the characteristic animals of Celebes. This is found only in
the island of Batchian; and it seems so much out of place there
as it is difficult to imagine how it could have reached the
island by any natural means of dispersal, and yet not have passed
by the same means over the narrow strait to Gilolo--that it seems
more likely to have originated from some individuals which had
escaped from confinement, these and similar animals being often
kept as pets by the Malays, and carried about in their praus.

Of all the carnivorous animals of the Archipelago the only one
found in the Moluccas is the Viverra tangalunga, which inhabits
both Batchian and Bouru, and probably come of the other islands.
I am inclined to think that this also may have been introduced
accidentally, for it is often made captive by the Malays, who
procure civet from it, and it is an animal very restless and
untameable, and therefore likely to escape. This view is rendered
still more probable by what Antonio de Morga tells us was the
custom in the Philippines in 1602. He says that "the natives of
Mindanao carry about civet-cats in cages, and sell them in the
islands; and they take the civet from them, and let them go
again." The same species is common in the Philippines and in all
the large islands of the Indo-Malay region.

The only Moluccan ruminant is a deer, which was once supposed to
be a distinct species, but is now generally considered to be a
slight variety of the Rusa hippelaphus of Java. Deer are often
tamed and petted, and their flesh is so much esteemed by all
Malays, that it is very natural they should endeavour to
introduce them into the remote islands in which they settled, and
whose luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for their
subsistence.

The strange babirusa of Celebes is also found in Bouru; but in no
other Moluccan island, and it is somewhat difficult to imagine
how it got there. It is true that there is some approximation
between the birds of the Sula Islands (where the babirusa is also
found) and those of Bouru, which seems to indicate that these
islands have recently been closer together, or that some
intervening land has disappeared. At this time the babirusa may
have entered Bouru, since it probably swims as well as its allies
the pigs. These are spread all over the Archipelago, even to
several of the smaller islands, and in many cases the species are
peculiar. It is evident, therefore, that they have some natural
means of dispersal. There is a popular idea that pigs cannot
swim, but Sir Charles Lyell has shown that this is a mistake. In
his "Principles of Geology" (10th Edit. vol. ii p. 355) he adduces
evidence to show that pigs have swum many miles at sea, and are
able to swim with great ease and swiftness. I have myself seen a
wild pig swimming across the arm of the sea that separates
Singapore from the Peninsula of Malacca, and we thus have
explained the curious fact, that of all the large mammals of the
Indian region, pigs alone extend beyond the Moluccas and as far
as New Guinea, although it is somewhat curious that they have not
found their way to Australia.

The little shrew, Sorex myosurus, which is common in Sumatra,
Borneo, and Java, is also found in the larger islands of the
Moluccas, to which it may have been accidentally conveyed in
native praus.

This completes the list of the placental mammals which are so
characteristic of the Indian region; and we see that, with the
single exception of the pig, all may very probably have been
introduced by man, since all except the pig are of species
identical with those now abounding in the great Malay islands, or
in Celebes.

The four remaining mammals are Marsupials, an order of the class
Mammalia, which is very characteristic of the Australian fauna;
and these are probably true natives of the Moluccas, since they
are either of peculiar species, or if found elsewhere are natives
only of New Guinea or North Australia. The first is the small
flying opossum, Belideus ariel, a beautiful little animal,
exactly line a small flying squirrel in appearance, but belonging
to the marsupial order. The other three are species of the
curious genus Cuscus, which is peculiar to the Austro-Malayan
region. These are opossum-like animals, with a long prehensile
tail, of which the terminal half is generally bare. They have
small heads, large eyes, and a dense covering of woolly fur,
which is often pure white with irregular black spots or blotches,
or sometimes ashy brown with or without white spots. They live in
trees, feeding upon the leaves, of which they devour large
quantities, they move about slowly, and are difficult to kill,
owing to the thickness of their fur, and their tenacity of life.
A heavy charge of shot will often lodge in the slain and do them
no harm, and even breaking the spine or piercing the brain will
not kill them for some hours. The natives everywhere eat their
flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by
climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been
exterminated. It may be, however, that their dense woolly fur
protects them from birds of prey, and the islands they live in
are too thinly inhabited for man to be able to exterminate them.
The figure represents Cuscus ornatus, a new species discovered by
me in Batchian, and which also inhabits Ternate. It is peculiar
to the Moluccas, while the two other species which inhabit Ceram
are found also in New Guinea and Waigiou.

In place of the excessive poverty of mammals which characterises
the Moluccas, we have a very rich display of the feathered
tribes. The number of species of birds at present known from the
various islands of the Molluccan group is 265, but of these only
70 belong to the usually abundant tribes of the waders and
swimmers, indicating that these are very imperfectly known. As
they are also pre-eminently wanderers, and are thus little fitted
for illustrating the geographical distribution of life in a
limited area, we will here leave them out of consideration and
confine our attention only to the 195 land birds.

When we consider that all Europe, with its varied climate and
vegetation, with every mile of its surface explored, and with the
immense extent of temperate Asia and Africa, which serve as
storehouses, from which it is continually recruited, only
supports 25l species of land birds as residents or regular
immigrants, we must look upon the numbers already procured in the
small and comparatively unknown islands of the Moluccas as
indicating a fauna of fully average richness in this department.
But when we come to examine the family groups which go to make up
this number, we find the most curious deficiencies in some,
balanced by equally striking redundancy in other. Thus if we
compare the birds of the Moluccas with those of India, as given
in Mr. Jerdon's work, we find that the three groups of the
parrots, kingfishers, and pigeons, form nearly _one-third_ of the
whole land-birds in the former, while they amount to only _one-
twentieth_ in the latter country. On the other hand, such wide-
spread groups as the thrushes, warblers, and finches, which in
India form nearly _one-third_ of all the land-birds, dwindle down
in the Moluccas to _one-fourteenth._

The reason of these peculiarities appears to be, that the
Moluccan fauna has been almost entirely derived from that of New
Guinea, in which country the same deficiency and the same
luxuriance is to be observed. Out of the seventy-eight genera in
which the Moluccan land-birds may be classed, no less than
seventy are characteristic of Yew Guinea, while only six belong
specially to the Indo-Malay islands. But this close resemblance
to New Guinea genera does not extend to the species, for no less
than 140 out of the 195 land-birds are peculiar to the Moluccan
islands, while 32 are found also in New Guinea, and 15 in the
Indo-Malay islands. These facts teach us, that though the birds
of this group have evidently been derived mainly from New Guinea,
yet the immigration has not been a recent one, since there has
been time for the greater portion of the species to have become
changed. We find, also, that many very characteristic New Guinea
forms lave not entered the Moluccas at all, while others found in
Ceram and Gilolo do not extend so far west as Bouru. Considering,
further, the absence of most of the New Guinea mammals from the
Moluccas, we are led to the conclusion that these islands are not
fragments which have been separated from New Guinea, but form a
distinct insular region, which has been upheaved independently at
a rather remote epoch, and during all the mutations it has
undergone has been constantly receiving immigrants from that
great and productive island. The considerable length of time the
Moluccas have remained isolated is further indicated by the
occurrence of two peculiar genera of birds, Semioptera and
Lycocorax, which are found nowhere else.

We are able to divide this small archipelago into two well marked
groups--that of Ceram, including also Bouru. Amboyna, Banda, and
Ke; and that of Gilolo, including Morty, Batchian, Obi, Ternate,
and other small islands. These divisions have each a considerable
number of peculiar species, no less than fifty-five being found
in the Ceram group only; and besides this, most of the separate
islands have some species peculiar to themselves. Thus Morty
island has a peculiar kingfisher, honeysucker, and starling;
Ternate has a ground-thrush (Pitta) and a flycatcher; Banda has a
pigeon, a shrike, and a Pitta; Ke has two flycatchers, a
Zosterops, a shrike, a king-crow and a cuckoo; and the remote
Timor-Laut, which should probably come into the Moluccan group,
has a cockatoo and lory as its only known birds, and both are of
peculiar species.

The Moluccas are especially rich in the parrot tribe, no less
than twenty-two species, belonging to ten genera, inhabiting
them. Among these is the large red-crested cockatoo, so commonly
seen alive in Europe, two handsome red parrots of the genus
Eclectus, and five of the beautiful crimson lories, which are
almost exclusively confined to these islands and the New Guinea
group. The pigeons are hardly less abundant or beautiful, twenty-
one species being known, including twelve of the beautiful green
fruit pigeons, the smaller kinds of which are ornamented with the
most brilliant patches of colour on the head and the under-
surface. Next to these come the kingfishers, including sixteen
species, almost all of which are beautiful, end many are among
the most brilliantly-coloured birds that exist.

One of the most curious groups of birds, the Megapodii, or mound-
makers, is very abundant in the Moluccas. They are gallinaceous
birds, about the size of a small fowl, and generally of a dark
ashy or sooty colour, and they have remarkably large and strong
feet and long claws. They are allied to the "Maleo" of Celebes,
of which an account has already been given, but they differ in
habits, most of these birds frequenting the scrubby jungles along
the sea-shore, where the soil is sandy, and there is a
considerable quantity of debris, consisting of sticks, shells,
seaweed, leaves, &c. Of this rubbish the Megapodius forms immense
mounds, often six or eight feet high and twenty or thirty feet in
diameter, which they are enabled to do with comparative ease, by
means of their large feet, with which they can grasp and throw
backwards a quantity of material. In the centre of this mound, at
a depth of two or three feet, the eggs are deposited, and are
hatched by the gentle heat produced by the fermentation of the
vegetable matter of the mound. When I first saw these mounds in
the island of Lombock, I could hardly believe that they were made
by such small birds, but I afterwards met with them frequently,
and have once or twice come upon the birds engaged in making
them. They run a few steps backwards, grasping a quantity of
loose material in one foot, and throw it a long way behind them.
When once properly buried the eggs seem to be no more cared for,
the young birds working their way up through the heap of rubbish,
and running off at once into the forest. They come out of the egg
covered with thick downy feathers, and have no tail, although the
wings are full developed.

I was so fortunate as to discover a new species (Megapodius
wallacei), which inhibits Gilolo, Ternate, and Bouru. It is the
handsomest bird of the genus, being richly banded with reddish
brown on the back and wings; and it differs from the other
species in its habits. It frequents the forests of the interior,
and comes down to the sea-beach to deposit its eggs, but instead
of making a mound, or scratching a hole to receive them, it
burrows into the sand to the depth of about three feet obliquely
downwards, and deposits its eggs at the bottom. It then loosely
covers up the mouth of the hole, and is said by the natives to
obliterate and disguise its own footmarks leading to and from the
hole, by making many other tracks and scratches in the
neighbourhood. It lays its eggs only at night, and at Bouru a
bird was caught early one morning as it was coming out of its
hole, in which several eggs were found. All these birds seem to
be semi-nocturnal, for their loud wailing cries may be constantly
heard late into the night and long before daybreak in the
morning. The eggs are all of a rusty red colour, and very large
for the size of the bird, being generally three or three and a
quarter inches long, by two or two and a quarter wide. They are
very good eating, and are much sought after by the natives.

Another large and extraordinary bird is the Cassowary, which
inhabits the island of Ceram only. It is a stout and strong bird,
standing five or six feet high, and covered with long coarse
black hair-like feathers. The head is ornamented with a large
horny calque or helmet, and the bare skin of the neck is
conspicuous with bright blue and red colours. The wings are quite
absent, and are replaced by a group of horny black spines like
blunt porcupine quills.

These birds wander about the vast mountainous forests that cover
the island of Ceram, feeding chiefly on fallen fruits, and on
insects or crustacea. The female lays from three to five large
and beautifully shagreened green eggs upon a bed of leaves, the
male and female sitting upon them alternately for about a month.
This bird is the helmeted cassowary (Casuarius galeatus) of
naturalists, and was for a long time the only species known.
Others have since been discovered in New Guinea, New Britain, and
North Australia.

It was in the Moluccas that I first discovered undoubted cases of
"mimicry" among birds, and these are so curious that I must
briefly describe them. It will be as well, however, first to
explain what is meant by mimicry in natural history. At page 205
of the first volume of this work, I have described a butterfly
which, when at rest, so closely resembles a dead leaf, that it
thereby escape the attacks of its enemies. This is termed a
"protective resemblance." If however the butterfly, being itself
savoury morsel to birds, had closely resembled another butterfly
which was disagreeable to birds, and therefore never eaten by
them, it would be as well protected as if it resembled a leaf;
and this is what has been happily termed "mimicry" by Mr. Bates,
who first discovered the object of these curious external
imitations of one insect by another belonging to a distinct genus
or family, and sometimes even to a distinct order. The clear-
winged moth which resemble wasps and hornets are the best
examples of "mimicry" in our own country.

For a long time all the known cases of exact resemblance of one
creature to quite a different one were confined to insects, and
it was therefore with great pleasure that I discovered in the
island of Bouru two birds which I constantly mistook for each
other, and which yet belonged to two distinct and somewhat
distant families. One of these is a honeysucker named
Tropidorhynchus bouruensis, and the other a kind of oriole, which
has been called Mimeta bouruensis. The oriole resembles the
honeysucker in the following particulars: the upper and under
surfaces of the two birds are exactly of the same tints of dark
and light brown; the Tropidorhynchus has a large bare black patch
round the eyes; this is copied in the Mimeta by a patch of black
feathers. The top of the head of the Tropidorhynchus has a scaly
appearance from the narrow scale-formed feathers, which are
imitated by the broader feathers of the Mimeta having a dusky
line down each. The Tropidorhynchus has a pale ruff formed of
curious recurved feathers on the nape (which has given the whole
genus the name of Friar birds); this is represented in the Mimeta
by a pale band in the same position. Lastly, the bill of the
Tropidorhynchus is raised into a protuberant keel at the base,
and the Mimeta has the same character, although it is not a
common one in the genus. The result is, that on a superficial
examination the birds are identical, although they leave
important structural differences, and cannot be placed near each
other in any natural arrangement.

In the adjacent island of Ceram we find very distinct species of
both these genera, and, strange to say, these resemble each other
quite as closely as do those of Bouru The Tropidorhynchus
subcornutus is of an earthy brown colour, washed with ochreish
yellow, with bare orbits, dusky: cheeks, and the usual recurved
nape-ruff: The Mimeta forsteni which accompanies it, is
absolutely identical in the tints of every part of the body, and
the details are copied just as minutely as in the former species.

We have two kinds of evidence to tell us which bird in this case
is the model, and which the copy. The honeysuckers are coloured
in a manner which is very general in the whole family to which
they belong, while the orioles seem to have departed from the gay
yellow tints so common among their allies. We should therefore
conclude that it is the latter who mimic the former. If so,
however, they must derive some advantage from the imitation, and
as they are certainly weak birds, with small feet and claws, they
may require it. Now the Tropidorhynchi are very strong and active
birds, having powerful grasping claws, and long, curved, sharp
beaks. They assemble together in groups and small flocks, and
they haw a very loud bawling note which can be heard at a great
distance, and serves to collect a number together in time of
danger. They are very plentiful and very pugnacious, frequently
driving away crows and even hawks, which perch on a tree where a
few of them are assembled. It is very probable, therefore, that
the smaller birds of prey have learnt to respect these birds and
leave them alone, and it may thus be a great advantage for the
weaker and less courageous Mimetas to be mistaken for them. This
being case, the laws of Variation and Survival of the Fittest,
will suffice to explain how the resemblance has been brought
about, without supposing any voluntary action on the part of the
birds themselves; and those who have read Mr. Darwin's "Origin of
Species" will have no difficulty in comprehending the whole
process.

The insects of the Moluccas are pre-eminently beautiful, even
when compared with the varied and beautiful productions of other
parts of the Archipelago. The grand bird-winged butterflies
(Ornithoptera) here reach their maximum of size and beauty, and
many of the Papilios, Pieridae Danaidae, and Nymphalidae are
equally preeminent. There is, perhaps, no island in the world so
small as Amboyna where so many grand insects are to be found.
Here are three of the very finest Ornithopterae--priamus, helena,
and remiss; three of the handsomest and largest Papilios--
ulysses, deiphobus, and gambrisius; one of the handsomest
Pieridae, Iphias leucippe; the largest of the Danaidae, Hestia
idea; and two unusually large and handsome Nymphalidae--Diadema
pandarus, and Charaxes euryalus. Among its beetles are the
extraordinary Euchirus longimanus, whose enormous legs spread
over a space of eight inches, and an unusual number of large and
handsome Longicorns, Anthribidae, and Buprestidae.

The beetles figured on the plate as characteristic of the
Moluccas are: 1. A small specimen of the Euchirus longimanus, or
Long-armed Chafer, which has been already mentioned in the
account of my residence at Amboyna (Chapter XX.). The female has
the fore legs of moderate length. 2. A fine weevil, (an
undescribed species of Eupholus,) of rich blue and emerald green
colours, banded with black. It is a native of Ceram and Goram,
and is found on foliage. 3. A female of Xenocerus semiluctuosus,
one of the Anthribidae of delicate silky white and black colours.
It is abundant on fallen trunks and stumps in Ceram and Amboyna.
4. An undescribed species of Xenocerus; a male, with very long
and curious antenna, and elegant black and white markings. It is
found on fallen trunks in Batchian. 5. An undescribed species of
Arachnobas, a curious genus of weevils peculiar to the Moluccas
and New Guinea, and remarkable for their long legs, and their
habit of often sitting on leaves, and turning rapidly round the
edge to the under-surface when disturbed. It was found in Gilolo.
All these insects are represented of the natural size.

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