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LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED IN TIMOE BY 

 MR. ALFRED EVERETT. 



By ERN.ST HARTERT. 



"ly /TE. EVERETT, who, I regret to say, is now ill in Singapore, lias been to 

 -^-^ Timor, and sent a magnificent collection of birds. Altliongh circumstances 

 prevented bis ascending anj' high elevations, and therefore this collection not 

 containing many representatives of new species, these birds are of much value to 

 Mr. Rothschild's Museum, because a great number of the species represented are 

 new to the collection, many in fact being only known from a few specimens in 

 the Leyden and British Museum's collections. As so many of the species have 

 been first described from Timor, these Timor birds are especially valuable for 

 comparison with those received from Flores, Savu, Sambawa, and other islands, 

 whence we received collections of which no account has yet been given in this 

 journal — in fact the relations of the ovnis of all these islands could never have 

 been properly studied by us without a Timor collection. 



I extract the following from one of Mr. Everett's interesting letters : — 

 " I arrived at Atapupu on the 8th of July, in the middle of the dry season 

 unfortunately, when the land was baked and the vegetation withered by long 

 drought, so that there was almost an absolute dearth of animal life, excepting 

 only birds, which were fairly plentiful. 



" Atapupu or Atapoepoe, the second 'of the only two Dutch settlements in 

 Timor, lies at the mouth of a deep gorge in the liills which line the coast a little to 

 the west of the middle of the island, and between two portions of the Portuguese 

 territory. Here a small perennial spring of good water, and the shelter afforded 

 to small coasting craft by a narrow but deep passage through the fringing reef 

 of dead coral to a safe anchorage within, have combined to favour the formation 

 of a trading station. A 'Posthonder' is in charge, and the steamers of the 

 subsidised Dutch mail company are under contract to call once every month. 

 A branch of the Roman Catholic Mission at Larantuka has been in operation for 

 some dozen years, and there is a smaller branch in the interior at Filaran, but 

 they have made little impression on the Timorese so far. The population of 

 Atapupu numbers about 1000, of whom some 300 are Chinese (including women 

 and children), who are occupied chiefly in the collection of sandalwood, of which 

 6000 pikuls is exported yearly, beeswax, hides, etc., and in the importation of 

 rum and gin, with as much smuggling of opium and coffee across the Portuguese 

 frontier as they can manage. Ponies abound, but are not exported, as they are 

 looked upon in the Java market as much inferior to those from Samba, Savu, and 

 Rotti. Atapupu may be regarded as the coast terminus of inland communication 

 for a great part of Dutch Timor. The Chinese traverse almost the whole country, 

 residing a good deal among the Timorese, who do not molest them ; but the 

 ' Posthouder ' appears to exercise but little influence. 



"My object in visiting Atapupu was chiefly to obtain a collection of the birds 

 of Lekiian, the highest mountain of Dutch Timor, its elevation being some 



