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THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH-WEST ISLANDS WETTER, 

 ROMA, KISSER, LETTI AND MOA. 



By ERNST HARTERT. 



rpHE Dutch have givLMi the name of the South-West Ishuuls to these and other 

 -L ishimls to the north and east of Timor, and in this term include also Dammer, 

 or Dama, in the Banda Sea. In a former artiele {Xoi:. Zoo/. lUtlO, jiji. 12-24) 1 

 have described the birds from Uammer, therefore I do not mention them here 

 again, and shall discnss only the birds of those islands where our indefatigable 

 correspondent Heinrich Kiihn has collected. He visited the islands of Wetter, 

 Roma, Kisser, IMoa and Letti. Unfortunately he was so far not able to go to 

 Babber, which ditlers faunistically considerably from the more western islands, 

 and to Sermatta, of which nothing is known at present. On the other hand he 

 made by f\ir the best collections ever brought together on Wetter, Letti and 

 Kisser, and visited Roma and Moa as the first ornithological collector. 



Onr knowledge of the avifauna of these islands has hitherto been very im[ierfeet. 

 The first birds sent to a European museum were some collected by D. S. Hoedt, 

 one of the famous collectors of the Leyden Museum, who visited Wetter, Letti 

 and Kisser between 1863 and ISOS. He discovered some very fine species, but 

 the number of species collected by him was very small. A few birds were sent 

 more recently to the Dresden Museum by J. G. Riedel from Wetter, Letti, Babber, 

 Tiuang, and Dawelor. Luang is a small islet between Leikor and Sermatta, 

 Dawelor close to Babber. 



In 1896 and 1S97 Karl Schildler sent large and fine collections to lieyden 

 from Kisser (38 species), Wetter (54 species), and Babber (31 species), altogether 

 244 skins and 173 in spirits. This was indeed a large increase, and it seemed 

 that not very mnch conld be left on the three islands for a bird collector. 



Nevertheless we induced Mr. Heinrich Kiihn to try his luck; and not only 

 did he send the first birds from Roma and Moa, but also on Letti, Kisser, and 

 especially on Wetter, very many additions were made, among them some unexpected 

 novelties, snch as Mi/zomda Imehni, Calornis kuelnii, and others. 



As jiractically the whole material known until the beginning of this century 

 (with the e.xception of the few specimens in the Dresden Museum) was preserved in 

 Leyden, Dr. Finsch Impjiily resolved to give a list of the birds known from all these 

 islands, and wrote an excellent article : " Systematische Uebersicht der Vogel der 

 SiUhvest Inseln," in vol. x.\ii. of tlie "Notes of the Leyden .Museum," pp. 225—309, 

 plates 3—5 (1901). This contained 123 species, including those from Dammer (52). 

 From Wetter he enumerated 5s, from Kisser 35, Letti 21, Babber 37. Needless to 

 say, Dr. Finsch's account has been of Die greatest value to me during my work, 

 especially as he had so many types Ijcfore iiim ; still more needless to say that it is as 

 consrienliousjy written as all the works of its author. Nevertheless my conclusions 

 (inter in various cases from his. Ornithologists will be aware without my statement 

 that this is due to our different views of treatment of closely allied forms. Dr. 

 Finsch acknowledges only species, and still raises the question : species or not 

 species? I recognise not only sjiccies, but also subspecies (geographical forms). 



