io6 



HA R D WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G SSIP. 



advantages would still be attained. And thus, too, 

 we find an exjDlanation of the fate which befalls the 

 adventurous wanderers ; for no lake deters them, and 

 they frequently cross the fiords in safety. No doubt, 

 therefore, they commit themselves to the Atlantic in 

 the belief that it is as passable as the lakes and fiords 

 they have already crossed, and that beyond its waves 

 lies a land, which they are never destined to reach." 



THE BIRDS OF NEW GUINEA. 

 By George Bennett, M.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S., «S:c. 



AN unexplored and fertile country like New 

 Guinea cannot fail to excite the attention 

 of the naturalist, whether his speciality may be or- 

 nithology, botany, ethnology, or any other branch 

 of natural history. The discoveries already made, 

 the numerous rare birds, insects, reptiles, &c., col- 

 lected and already described, have excited the deepest 

 interest among zoologists, and have aroused the en- 

 thusiastic collector to still further perseverance in 

 adding to our stores more of the rich fauna which 

 New Guinea possesses ; for New Guinea and the 

 adjacent islands are well known to teem with varied 

 and beautiful forms of life in a luxuriant region, for 

 the most part of tropical vegetation. 



In the geographical distribution of birds. New 

 Guinea may be veiy correctly placed in the same 

 region as Australia, and may also include New 

 Britain, New Ireland, and the Duke of York group 

 of islands. Dr. Sclater considers that, while "Borneo, 

 Java, and Sumatra are inseparably allied to the South 

 Asiatic fauna, Amboyna, Timor, Gilolo, and New 

 Guinea, with some of the other eastern islands, are 

 properly appertinent to the same primary zoological 

 region as Australia. The Straits of Macassar are 

 perhaps the determining line separating these two 

 regions, the island of Lombok (which lies due south 

 of them) being (as Mr. Wallace's investigations have 

 shown) in some respects debatable ground between 

 them. New Guinea agrees witlr Australia in the 

 absence of two families, the Woodpeckers (Picidcs) 

 and the Pheasants {Phasiaiiidai), both of which are 

 very fully developed in the region of Indian zoology. 

 Signor D'Albertis obtained in New Guinea a re- 

 markable form of rapacious bird, a New Guinea 

 Harpy, which has been described and published very 

 recently by Salvador! (in the Annall del Mus. Civ. 

 diSt.Nat. di Geiiova, vol. vii. 1875). It forms a new 

 genus allied to the South American Harpy ( Thras{ettis 

 harpyia), and he has named it Harpyopsis Nova 

 GuimcB. 



New Guinea and the adjacent islands are well 

 known to be the home of the more splendid forms 

 of the Birds of Paradise ; for the ParadiscidiS, or 

 Birds of Paradise, form one of the most remarkable 

 families of birds, unsurpassed alike both for the 

 beauty and singularity of their plumage. The various 



species of true Paradise Birds having ornamental 

 plumes developed from different parts of the body, 

 are almost wholly confined to New Guinea and the 

 adjacent Papuan islands, one species only being 

 found in the Moluccas, and three in Australia. 

 Wallace obsei"ves that of the "eighteen species 

 which deserve a place among the Birds of Paradise, 

 eleven are known to inhabit the great island of New 

 Guinea, eight of which are entirely confined to it 

 and the hardly separated island of Salwatty." But 

 since Wallace wrote in 1869, many other species 

 have been discovered ; as Dirpanoniis Alhertisi, 

 Epiinackus Elliot tii, and Diphilloides Gulielmi III., 

 Paradisca Raggiana. 



The naturalists. Lesson, Wallace, Meyer, D'Al- 

 bertis, Beccari, and others, have done much to develop 

 the zoology of New Guinea and the adjacent islands. 

 Many Australian forms of birds, c^-c, are met with 

 in New Guinea, and others, again, are peculiar to 

 New Guinea, that is, they have not been found else- 

 where ; many, again, are common to both Australia 

 and New Guinea ; others occur in other of the eastern 

 islands as well as New Guinea, and some are birds 

 of a wide distribution. This extends even to New 

 Britain, New Ireland, and the Duke of York group 

 of islands, as I obsen^ed when looking over a col- 

 lection of birds, &c., made at those islands by a 

 Wesleyan missionary, the Rev. George Brown. With 

 respect to Duke of York Island, Mr. Brown says 

 that it is not one island, but forms a group of twelve 

 islands ; seven of these are inhabited, the population 

 of which he supposes amounts to between 4,000 and 

 5,000. 



New Guinea, as far as we at present know, is 

 very deficient in mammals, compared with Australia. 

 In the ornithology of New Guinea, some of the most 

 interesting to notice will be the group of true Para- 

 dise Birds, with their waving golden trains, and rich 

 crimson plumes, clothed all over the head, back, 

 breaSt, and shoulders, in colours of deep metallic 



• green, rich yellow, bright crimson, deep purple 

 ; shading gradually into delicate mauve, silver, and, 



j indeed, a combination of most exquisitely rich and 



• beautiful colours, gradually blending into the most 

 delicate hues conceivable, forming a dazzling beauty 

 of plumage not to be surpassed. 



I Indeed, a very strong feature of the Papuan orni- 

 ' thology is the large proportion which the handsome 

 ' and bright-coloured birds bear to the more obscure 

 i species, compared with birds of other countries where 

 j brilliancy of plumage was always supposed to be in 

 the ascendency. In New Guinea we notice the rich- 

 1 ness and specialization of the parrots, ijigeons, and 

 I kingfishers, the beautiful paradise birds, and some 

 remarkable species of flycatchers. But the Birds of 

 Pai'adise present the most wonderful developments 

 of plumage, and the most gorgeous varieties of colour 

 to be found among Passerine birds ; so I will com- 

 mence with the Great Bird of Paradise, or Footless 



