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AN ACCOUNT OF THE COLLECTIONS OF BIEDS 

 MADE BY MR. WILLIAM DOHERTY IN THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO. 



By ERNST HARTERT. 

 (Plates XI. and XII.). 

 I.-INTRODUCTION. 



LITTLE did I dream wlicn in ]888, coming from tlie Kinta District in the 

 interior of Perak in the Mahay Peninsula, \)\ a most fortunate accident I 

 met the then already well-known entomologist Mr. William Doherty, who was 

 just leaving Thaiping for Padang Ringas, that he might eventually become one of 

 the most energetic ornithological collectors of the end of the century. He travelled 

 then without a gun, and afterwards when we made together our pleasant trip to 

 Upper Assam he never showed any inclination to collect birds. Only about a year 

 ago in Tring, before leaving for his present journey, he decided that he would also 

 ti-y to collect birds. As he was going to start for some of the most interesting 

 places of the Dutch East Indies, Mr. Rothschild and I were very glad to hear of 

 his plans, and we tried to instruct our friend as much as we could in the few days' 

 time there was. We did not know to what extent the bird-collecting would be 

 carried out, but our expectations were not too great, as we hardly thought the great 

 field of entomology which Doherty cultivated would allow him much time for 

 vertebrates also. Now, to judge from the rich material of birdskins he sent to the 

 Tring Museum in less than nine months' time, and considering that they are his 

 first attempts, it would seem that Doherty is destined to become one of the most 

 successful ornithological collectors of our days. Part of his success is probably due 

 to the fact that he follows our advice in searching chiefly for the less conspicuous 

 little forms, which are passed over by many of the collectors, and to the truly 

 astonishing amount of special ornithological knowledge he acquired, and which 

 enables him to look out for the more interesting forms in their proper places. 



II.— ON BIRD8 FROM EAST JAVA. 

 {With footnote on a new genus by the Hon. Walter Rothschild.) 



Doherty's first trip in 1806 was one of aliout two weeks to Afou/if Arjuno, an 

 enormous old volcano in the eastern j'art of Java, south of Surabaya, which he 

 ascended to the top. He writes : " Birds are very scarce on the top of Arjuno, 

 and the weather was dreadful. I send only about sixteen species taken from 

 8300 to over 10,000 feet, the upper part of the mountain from 10,(J00 to 11,000 feet 

 having produced nothing. I was camping in a hut in a valley, called Lali .Jiwo, 

 8300 feet high, the highest building in Java, and collected up to the summit of 

 Arjuno, 11,000 feet, and the crater of AVelirang, 10,000 feet, wJiere I got some of 

 the best birds. I am sorry to say that some of them do not seem to be really 

 high-elevation species, but may have come from below, as Acthop>/ga mi/stacalis 

 and Buchongn cineracea, but some must be very rare." 



I give a full list of these birds, as we know realh very little of the exact 

 altitudes and localities of many of the Javan birds, and as there are some rare and 

 new species in this first little bird-collection of Mr. Doherty. 



These birds were all collected in January. 



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