of Ceram and Waigiou, 291 



hesitatingly pronounce Waigiou to be the very poorest island in 

 the New Guinea zoological region. 



On my arrival in Ternate I found my assistant Mr. Allen, 

 who had spent more than six months in Mysol, and it was with 

 much anxiety I proceeded to examine his collection. I was much 

 disappointed, however, in finding almost all ray own birds over 

 again, with the addition of a few Dorey species and about 15-16 

 new to me, mostly of the genera Campephaga, Rectes, Myiolestes, 

 and a few Hawks, — a Rail, a Kingfisher, and the Eos atra. 



Owing to his having to return to Ceram for rice, and waiting 

 there two months till it arrived from Amboyna, he missed the 

 season for the Paradise-birds, obtaining only a single P.papuana, 

 a few P. regia, and of the third species which inhabits the island, 

 Diphyllodes magnifica, only a native skin. Successive visits of 

 several months each to four distinct Papuan districts have only 

 produced me four species of Paradise-birds, while the general 

 run of the birds is so nearly identical in all as to make a fifth 

 visit absolutely profitless, except by obtaining the remaining 

 species of these beautiful creatures. I have, however, at length 

 obtained very precise information as to where the greater part, 

 if not all, of my desiderata in Paradisece and Epimachidce are to 

 be obtained, and in a few days Mr. Allen starts for this locality 

 with every requisite for a thorough exploration, in my own 

 Goram prahaw, and accompanied by a lieutenant and two soldiers 

 from the Sultan of Tidore to assist and protect him. If he does 

 not succeed this time, I must give up the attempt in despair, 

 lie touches for a few weeks at Guebe, and on his return goes for 

 a month to the Xulla Islands, which contain the Babirusa, but 

 of which the fauna is otherwise totally unknown. 



I myself leave by the next steamer for Timor Delli : on my 

 return I spend two months at Bourn, where the Babirusa is also 

 found ; but whether its fauna is of the Moluccan or of the 

 Celebes type, we are yet ignorant. In September we are to 

 meet again here, to pack up our collections, and shall then finally 

 quit the district of the Moluccas and New Guinea. Please 

 make allowance for these hasty notes, written amid the confusion 

 and fatigue of packing. 

 Ternate, Deo. 20tli, 1860. 



