286 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Ornithology 



visiting all the small islands between it and Ceram, and I much 

 regret that I was not enabled to do so ; but the delay and trouble 

 in getting boats and men from the native Rajahs was so great, 

 that the East monsoon set in and drove me back on the way there. 

 I stayed, however, about a fortnight on the two Matabello Islands 

 (and I believe I am the first European who has ever touched 

 there), and spent also a month at Goram, and in both of them I 

 found several of the Ke birds which I obtained on my voyage 

 to Aru two years ago. 



The species of birds in these islands are very limited. A few 

 New Guinea species occur {Cacatua triton and Eclectns linneei), 

 probably escaped and naturalized. The Eos and Trichoglossus 

 are the Ceram species. 



The Carpophiiga, both at Goram and Matabello, is the fine 

 species found at Banda and Ke. I sent it from Aru ; but as it 

 inhabits there only one small island nearest Ke, it has, no doubt, 

 recently emigrated, and is not a true New Guinea bird. G. R. 

 Gray identifies it with C chalybura, Bp. ; but this I doubt, as it 

 certainly does not agree with the description in the ' Conspectus,' 

 and the locality of C. chalybura (the Philippines) is much against 

 its being the same. 



In Matabello, the only Ptilonopus seems to be the P.prasi7ior- 

 rhous, Gray. In Goram the same species occurs, in company with 

 the P.viridis of Ceram. The Dicrurus of Goram is a large species, 

 very dift'erent from that of Ceram, and probably the D. megalor- 

 nis of Ke. I am decidedly of opinion, therefore, that the Ke 

 Islands do not belong to the New Guinea fauna, but, with Banda, 

 Goram, and the intermediate islands, form a little subgroup of 

 the Moluccas, perhaps also including Timor laut. None of 

 them, as far as we know, contain a single true Papuan form, as 

 Redes, Manucodia, or Cracticus, which are found even in the 

 smaller islands of Aru. The species peculiar to them should 

 therefore be erased from the list of New Guinea birds. 



The Cassowary occurs rather plentifully over the whole interior 

 of Ceram, but I was never able to obtain or even see a specimen. 

 In a native house I found an upper mandible and crest, which 

 may perhaps show if it differs from the New Guinea species. A 

 residence in the interior of Ceram with the indigenes might pro- 



