112 Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ?^c. 



answer is, that in the whole mainland of New Guinea there is no 

 other place where my life would be safe a week. It is a horribly 

 wild country. You have no idea of the difficulties in the way 

 of a single person doing anything in it. There arc a few good 

 birds at Dorey, but full half of the species are the same as at 

 the Aru Islands, and there is much less variety. My best things 

 ai'e some new and rare Lories*." In a letter written from Ter- 

 nate in March last, before starting for Havre-Dorey, Mr. Wal- 

 lace remarks, speaking of the Eastern tropics generally, " This 

 part of the world is very poor in species compared with South 

 America. In Java, so rich, so varied, and so well explored, 

 there are barely 300 s])ecies according to Miiller, a number 

 which any one spot in tropical America would probably furnish 

 if well explored." In the same letter, with reference to the dis- 

 tribution of the Parrots, he says, " The Psittacidfc are very inter- 

 esting. It is, however, almost impossible to get all the species 

 of each locality, some being always scarce and difficult to shoot. 

 The greatest confusion exists as to their distribution, owing to 

 their being carried from island to island by the native traders. 

 This I hope in a great measure to set to rights. Almost every 

 island of any extent has some peculiar species, but there are 

 others which extend over a considerable range of the Archipelago. 

 The repi'esentative species in the different islands are often very 

 closely allied. In Gilolo I have found the true Geoffroiius cya- 

 neicollis, which is quite distinct from G. personatus of Amboyna, 

 and also from the Aru species, which, if different, as I think, 

 from the Amboyna one, is newf- lu my second Macassar 

 collection I have sent a TrichoglossusX, which I think new — the 

 most western of the genus. At Manado, in the north of Celebes, 

 I shall find many of the rare birds which do not occur at Ma- 

 cassar. I have a pair of the superb Pitta maxima of Forsten, 



* Among these is what Mr. Wallace thinks is a new species of Char- 

 mosyna. 



t This will stand as Geoffroiius aruensis, having been described by 

 Mr. G. R. Gray from Mr. Wallace's s|)ecimens as Psittacus aruensis (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. IH.'^.S, ]). 183). 



X The Trichofflossus from Macassar is T. ornatus. There are examples 

 of this species in the Levden Museum from Celibes collected by Forsten, 

 and from Bouton collected bv Miillo. 



