cca. For example,
among the commonest birds in Lombock were white cockatoos and three
species of Meliphagidae or honeysuckers, belonging to family groups
which are entirely absent from the western or Indo-Malayan region of the
Archipelago. On passing to Flores and Timor the distinctness from the
Javanese productions increases, and we find that these islands form a
natural group, whose birds are related to those of Java and Australia,
but are quite distinct from either. Besides my own collections in
Lombock and Timor, my assistant Mr. Allen made a good collection in
Flores; and these, with a few species obtained by the Dutch naturalists,
enable us to form a very good idea of the natural history of this group
of islands, and to derive therefrom some very interesting results.

The number of birds known from these islands up to this date is: 63 from
Lombock, 86 from Flores, and 118 from Timor; and from the whole group,
188 species. With the exception of two or three species which appear
to have been derived from the Moluccas, all these birds can be traced,
either directly or by close allies, to Java on the one side or to
Australia on the other; although no less than 82 of them are found
nowhere out of this small group of islands. There is not, however,
a single genus peculiar to the group, or even one which is largely
represented in it by peculiar species; and this is a fact which
indicates that the fauna is strictly derivative, and that its origin
does not go back beyond one of the most recent geological epochs. Of
course there are a large number of species (such as most of the waders,
many of the raptorial birds, some of the kingfishers, swallows, and a
few others), which range so widely over a large part of the Archipelago
that it is impossible to trace them as having come from any one part
rather than from another. There are fifty-seven such species in my list,
and besides these there are thirty-five more which, though peculiar to
the Timor group, are yet allied to wide-ranging forms. Deducting these
ninety-two species, we have nearly a hundred birds left whose relations
with those of other countries we will now consider.

If we first take those species which, as far as we yet know, are
absolutely confined to each island, we find, in:

Lombock 4 belonging to 2 genera, of which 1 is Australian, 1 Indian.
Flores 12 " 7 " 5 are " 2 "
Timor 42 " 20 " 16