Out of the very small number of mammals which inhabit Celebes, it possesses three genera of singular and isolated forms, viz. the Cynopi thecus, tailless ape, allied to the baboons; the Anoa, a straight-horned quadruped, quite unlike anything else in the Aichipelago or in India ; and Babirussa, adaltogether abnormal wild pig. With a rather limited bird population, Celebes has an immense preponderance of species confined to it, and has also six remarkablegenera (Meropogon, Ceycopsis, Streptocitta Enodes, Seissirostrum, and Megace plialon) • entirely -restricted to its narrow limits, as well as two others (Prioiniturus and Basilornis), which only range to a single island beyond it. ' The Moluccas consist of three large islands, Gilolo, Ceram, and 'Bourn, with many small isles and islets; Batchian, Morty, Obi, Ke, Timor Laut, Amboyna, Ternate, Tidore, Kaiva, and Banda. There'are 25 bats, but only 10 land mammals are ktiown' in the group ; amongst them Cynopithecus Viverra tangalunga, Rnsa hippela plius, the Babirussa, Sorex myosurus, common to Sumatra, Borneo, and Java, and four marsupials, viz. the small flying opossum, Belideus ariel, a beautiful little animal resembling the flying squirrel in appearance, and a species of Cuscus, peculiar to the Austro-Malayan region. They 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 cover ing of woolly' fur, often pure white, with irre gular black spots or blotches, but sometimes ashy brown. They live in trees, and feed on the leaves, of which they devour large quantities ; they are very tenacious of life.
The islands eastward from Java and Borneo form a part of a previous Australian or Pacific continent.
Australia has no apes, monkeys, cats, tigers, wolves, bears, hyaenas, no deer or antelopes, sheep or oxen; 'no elephant, horse,, squirrel, or rabbit. In lieu, it has. kangaroos, , opossums, wombats, and the duck-billed palypus. It has no woodpftker or pheasants, but has in lieu the mound-making brush turkeys, honey-suckers, cockatoos, the brush-tongued lodes, which are found nowhere else in the globe ; and all these peculiarities' are found in the islands which' form the Austro-Malayan division of the Archipelago.
The Aru Islands, Mysol, Waigiou, and Jobie agree with New Guinea in their species of mam malia and birds, and they are all united to New Guinea by a narrow, sea. The 100 fathom lino around New Guinea marks the range of the paradise birds.
The Papuan Islands consist of New Guinea, 1400 miles long, and its adjacent islands. In them only 17 mammals as yet are known, viz. 2 bats, 1 Sus Papuensis, and the rest are mar supials, one of these a kangaroo of Mysol and the Aru Islands. An allied species occupies N. Guinea. Two species of the tree kangaroo with powerful claws. There are 4 species of Cuscus, and the small flying opossum ; and there are 5 small marsupials, one of which is the size of a rat, and takes its place by entering houses and provisions.
Uses.—The horse, the donkey, the camel, the dog, the elephant, and the otter have been trained to be servants to man. The first four have been entirely domesticated, and there are now many varieties of them. The elephant has rarely bred in captivity, but they are captured in a wild state in Ceylon, in the Peninsula of India, in the east of Bengal, and in Assam. They were not in use by the Moghuls, as Polo tells, until Kablai's capture of a number in the war with Mien or Ava. A few continued to be kept at the Chinese court at Timkowski's visit in 1821. The huge creatures are docile, and soon accommodate themselves to the requirements of man. They are usually employed in India, both in peace and war, in carrying heavy articles, but are trained also to carry individuals. There are many elephants in Africa, but the people there have not learned to, ensnare them, and they are destroyed for the ivory of their teeth and tusks.
In the south of Asia, the wild ass or gOr-khar of the desert, Equus onager, Pallas, also the Equus hemippus, Is. Geoffroy, and the kiang or dzightai of the Tibetan plains, Equus hemionus, Pallas, still roam untamed ; and the E. asinus or Asinus tazniopus, Heuglin, is in South Arabia and N.E. Africa. No attempt within historic times has been made to domesticate any of these, but many of the Kattyawar breed of horses have the shoulder-stripe of the wild and common ass distinctly across the withers.
Naturalists arrange the whales porpoises, and dolphins under the Cetacea, a title taken from the Greek word KNT0c, a whale. The fat and whalebone of the whales, and the spermaceti of one of the species, are largely used. The natives of the Arctic Atlantic shores, and those of the Northern Pacific Islands, eat the whale blubber, and the whalebone is applied to many useful purposes. Ships from Europe and America visit the Northern and Southern Seas to catch these great mammals. Many thousands of seals are yearly brought from the Greenland shores to furnish warm winter robes. Few of the ladies of Europe and America are aware of the fact that many ornaments for their hats which look like feathers are of split whalebone.
' The porpoises are distinguished from all their allies by their great strength and ferocity, being the only cetaceans which habitually prey on warm blooded animals ; for, though fish form part of their food, they also attack and devour seals and various species of their own order, not only the smaller porpoises and dolphins, but even M I sized whales, which last they combine in packs to hunt down nud destroy, as wolves do the larger ruminants. The Platanista Gangetica of the rivers Ganges and Irawadi is quite blind. It feeds on small fish and crustacea ; it ascends as high as there is water to swim in, but never passes out to sea.