Guide to the collection of Bornean birds in the Sarawak Museum / by J.C. Moulton.

  • Moulton, J. C
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the collection of Bornean birds in the Sarawak Museum / by J.C. Moulton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/256 (page 4)
    I 4 Isles (Borneo, Sumatra and Java), to the Phi- lippines and in lesser degree to Celebes and the Lesser Sunda Isles. The Australian region has only a few straggling representatives in Borneo. During certain months of the year the numbers of true Bornean Birds are swelled by visitors. These all come from the North ; and we can dis- tinguish two lines of migration—one continental, from Siberia, South China and the Eastern Hima- layas, and the other further East, from Japan. Formosa, and the Philippines. We have also occasional stragglers from neighbouring countries c.g. from Java to South Borneo, from Palawan to North Borneo. Although Bornean Birds have hardly any charac- ter peculiarly their own, a great many show very slight, but constant, differences which are sufficient to distinguish them from their close allies in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. It may be a slightly different shade of colour, a greater exten- sion of one colour on the throat or breast for instance, or perhaps a very slight but regular difference in size, etc., etc. These small differences have been evolved since the breaking up of Neo- malaya into the three countries we know to-day as Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. In these countries we find further local differ- ences, thus a mountain form of one species is often seen to be regularly different from its lowland brother. Similarly, differences are noted between individuals of one species coming from different parts of Borneo, e.g. from North Borneo and from Western Sarawak. But in some cases intermedi- ate forms occur in the country between, so we are not yet justified in considering such species or local races as distinct. We can only note that there is a tendency for the individuals of a species in different parts of Borneo to show local differences.