The Mammalia of Timor as wel] as those of the other
islands of the group are exceedingly scanty, with the
exception of bats. These last are tolerably abundant, arid
no doubt many more remain to be discovered. Out of
fifteen species known from Timor, nine are found also in
Java, or the islands west of i t ; three are Moluccan species,
most of which are also found in Australia, and the
rest are peculiar to Timor.
The land mammals are only seven in number, as follows:
1. The common monkey, Macacus cynomolgus, which is
found in all the Indo-Malayan islands, and has spread
from Java through Bali and Lombock to Timor. This
species is very frequent on the banks of rivers, and may
have been conveyed from island to island on trees carried
down by floods. 2. Paradoxurus fasciatus; a civet cat,
very common over a large part of the Archipelago.
3. Felis megalotis; a tiger cat, said to be peculiar to Timor,
where it exists only in the interior, and is very rare. Its
nearest allies are in Java. 4. Cervus timoriensis; a deer,
closely allied to the Javan and Moluccan species, if distinct.
5. A wild pig, Sus timoriensis; perhaps the same
as some of the Moluccan species. 6. A shrew mouse, Sorex
tenuis j supposed to be peculiar to Timor. 7. An Eastern
opossum, Cuscus orientalis; found also in the Moluccas,
if not a distinct species.
The fact that not one of these species is Australian, or
nearly allied to any Australian form, is strongly corroborative
of the opinion that Timor has never formed a part of
that country; as in that case some kangaroo or other
marsupial animal would almost certainly be found there.
It is no doubt very difficult to account for the presence of
some of the few mammals that do exist in Timor, especially
the tiger cat and the deer. We must consider, however,
that during thoxisands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands
of years, these islands and the seas between them
have been subjected to volcanic action. The land has
been raised and has sunk again; the straits have been
narrowed or widened; many of the islands may have been
joined and dissevered again; violent floods have again
and again devastated the mountains and plains, carrying
out to sea hundreds of forest trees, as has often happened
during volcanic eruptions in J ava; and it does not seem
improbable that once in a thousand, or ten thousand years,
there should have occurred such a favourable combination
of circumstances as would lead to the migration of two . or
three land animals from one island to another. This is all
that we need ask to account for the very scanty and fragmentary
group of Mammalia which now inhabit the large
island of Timor. The deer may very probably have been
introduced by man, for the Malays often keep tame fawns ;
and it may not require a thousand, or even five hundred
years, to establish new characters in an animal removed to