Extracts from Correspondence, Announcements, &^c. 95 



that we may not receive further accounts of them or hear of the 

 results accomphshed by the mission until February next. 



Mr. Wallace's last letters are dated from Batavia, Sept. 20th. 

 After leaving Timor, of which island Mr. Wallace has given us 

 an account in our last Number ('Ibis/ 1861, p. 347 et seq.), he 

 proceeded to Bourou, and staid there two months. " From 

 the existence of the Babirusa in this island/' says Mr. Wallace, 

 " I had been somewhat doubtful whether its fauna would not 

 prove more Celebesian than Moluccan. I was soon, however, 

 satisfied that it is a true Moluccan island, though a very poor 

 one. Most of the common Amboyna and Ceram forms occurred, 

 some absolutely identical, others sufficiently modified to be cha- 

 racterized as distinct species. The Tamjpiathus, Polychlorus, 

 Eclectus, Geoffroius, Eos, and Trichoglossus, as welf^as the 

 Aprosmictus, occur as in Ceram, the Tanygnathus being the only 

 one which varies from the type, wanting the black markings on 

 the wings. Lorius is altogether absent, as well as Corvus, 

 Buceros, and Cacatua, genera which are present in every other 

 island from Celebes eastwards. This deficiency does not rest 

 alone on the fact of my not having met with them, thovigh that 

 would be pretty good proof, they being all ubiquitous and noisy 

 birds, but on the universal testimony of the natives, many of 

 whom know all these birds from their visits to other islands, and 

 are quite sure that their own country is destitute of them. 



'• The Flycatchers (3-4 sp.) seem new, as well as a very common 

 Mimeta, near M. forsteni of Ceram, and a Tropidorhynchus — I 

 suppose the T. buruensis, Q. & C, though in Bonaparte's ' Con- 

 spectus' that species is given to Celebes, where I never found 

 the genus. The Pigeons are mostly known species, except a 

 fine Treron with very brilliant yellow-marked wings ; and I heard 

 of other species of the same group occasionally met with. A 

 single specimen of Tanysiptera seems different from the Ceram 

 species ; and a Pitta, near P. macklotti and P. celebensis, but suffi- 

 ciently distinct, is also unique. I was much surpi-ised to find, 

 besides the Ptilonopus viridis of Amboyna, the beautiful P. 

 prasinorrhous, G. B. Gray, which I had first discovered in Ke, then 

 found in Goram, afterwards in Waigiou, and I think there can 



