In Birds we have the two families of Podargidae and Laniadae, which range over the whole Archipelago and into Australia, and which yet have no representative in Celebes.

The genera Ceyx among Kingfishers, Criniger among Thrushes, Rhipidura among Flycatchers, Calornis among Starlings, and Erythrura among Finches, are all found in the Moluccas as well as in Borneo and Java--but not a single species belonging to any one of them is found in Celebes.

Among insects, the large genus of Rose-chafers, Lomaptera, is found in every country and island between India and New Guinea, except Celebes.

This unexpected absence of many groups, from one limited district in the very centre of their area of distribution, is a phenomenon not altogether unique, but, I believe, nowhere so well marked as in this case; and it certainly adds considerably to the strange character of this remarkable island.
The anomalies and eccentricities in the natural history of Celebes which I have endeavoured to sketch in this CHAPTER, all point to an origin in a remote antiquity.

The history of extinct animals teaches us that their distribution in time and in space are strikingly similar.