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ME. WILLIAM DOHERTY'S BIRD-COLLECTIONS FROM 



CELEBES. 



By ERNST HARTERT. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



AFTER liis most snccessfnl trips to Java, Bali, Lombok, Sambawa, and Snmba, 

 of which a short account is given and tlio birds ennmerated in the last 

 unmber of this jonrnal, Doherty left the Snnda Islands for Celebes. The ornitho- 

 logical resnlts from Celebes are, of course, less important than those from the 

 Lesser Snnda Islands, as Celebes is, for the most part, much better known than 

 those islands ; bnt the birds are, nevertheless, of much interest. 



Doherty first went up to Bonthain Peak. He says of the birds from there : 

 " About half of them came from Bnkampaliang or Kampaliang, about .5000 feet 

 high, above Lokka, which is above Bonthain (Bantaing), high up on the ' Bawa 

 Karaing,' as the peak is there called. They were taken in four days. We did not 

 make a long stay at Bonthain, bnt immediately started up the hill with packhorses,. 

 the Raja superintending. As early as eight o'clock in the morning (butterflies are 

 rarely out till at least nine, as you know) we got some good butterflies — a d of an 

 Jxias new to me, though I think I have seen it mentioned somewhere, a ? of the 

 very rare Krgolis merionoides, and several of Nychitona (Hone and Appkis ithome, 

 of which we had only got one in the Makassar country. The vegetation was 

 ststouishiugly ditferent from that at the north of Makassar — rather iioor — and we 

 had seen very fine forest three miles from Bonthain. So, finding insects very scarce 

 in the high country, we, in our disappointment, returned too soon to Bonthain town, 

 and spent half of our short trip near that place, wliere we found none of the fine 

 things we expected." 



The shortness of the Bonthain trip, and the very short stay in the higher 

 altitudes, were the reasons that the Bonthain birds are of comparatively little 

 interest ; and as Everett and the Sarasins had collected there before, they are all 

 species already known to occur there. Nevertheless I thought it would lie worth 

 while to give a complete list, as we know so little of the exact distribution of 

 Celebes birds in higher altitudes, as some of the species call forth certain remarks, 

 and especially as most of them have good details on the labels. 



There is then a snuill collection from the low country nortli of Makassar, which, 

 though small and for the greater part consisting of common birds, contains great 

 rarities, as a skin of a young nialc of Phlegoenas bimcu-ulata Salvad., ih^ female of 

 Monachalctjon capucinus Mey. & Wigl., only known from the typo, a malo, and a 

 pair of Sipkia rtifigula, which was of special interest to us. 



After a short stay at Makassar, that great eniporinm of the easternmost trade 

 in the Dntch West Indies, Doherty proceeded to Palos Bay, in the middle of the 

 west coast of Celebes, where he collected for a short time, nnfortunately under very 

 difficult and hindering circumstances. 



The following passages from a letter dated Ternate, September 27th, 1896, 

 and written during a bad attack of remittent fever — in a temi)eratare of from 9,5° to 

 110° Fahr. — refer to this expedition, and may be of interest, if only to show that 



