. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. rivedis unknown; but there can be little doubt that they havebeen brought by the accident of shipwreck, or by must feed on the Commehjna, and on the leaves of lowshrubs, for there is no grass to be found ; and they must often,I feel sure, be pressed for water to drink in the dry season. No kangaroos were seen or heard of in any of the islands,but a small species of mouse-like mammal, of which I wasunable to catch a specimen, may be a Perameles or jumping-mousc. Of Rodent
. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. rivedis unknown; but there can be little doubt that they havebeen brought by the accident of shipwreck, or by must feed on the Commehjna, and on the leaves of lowshrubs, for there is no grass to be found ; and they must often,I feel sure, be pressed for water to drink in the dry season. No kangaroos were seen or heard of in any of the islands,but a small species of mouse-like mammal, of which I wasunable to catch a specimen, may be a Perameles or jumping-mousc. Of Rodents the common rat was—too abundant. Nospecies of Sciuridse were observed. Of Cheiroptera there wereseveral small species, besides a common Pterojnis or PlyingFox. There are no deer. One species of Sirenian, probablythe Halicore australis, frequents the shore, and is hunted bythe natives for its ivories from which they make frog was collected, while snakes and lizards were foundin considerable numbers, one of each being a species new toscience. While, out of sixty species of birds, I brought no. machikp ground-thrush (Geocichla machiki, forbes). IN TIMOR-LAUT. 337 fewer than twenty forms, aud of the butterflies and insectsnearly one-half, that were undescribed before. One of the objects of my visit was to determine to whatzoo-geographical province Timor-laut belonged. Lying asit does at no great distance from Am and New Guinea onthe east, from Australia to the southward, and from Timorto the west, it was an interesting question which of themhad behaved most bountifully by it. It is surrounded by avery deep sea, deeper, so the captain of one of the Dutchmen-of-war surveying in that region just before my return toEurope informed me, than is represented in most of the to the birds peculiar to the group, all belong toPapuan genera (and nearly allied to known Papuan species)with the exception of a few species, which have their nearestrepresentatives in Ti
Size: 1499px × 1667px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
