IN TIMOIi-LA UT, 337 



fewer than twenty forms, and of the butterflies and insects 

 nearly one-half, that were unclescribed before. 



One of the objects of my visit was to determine to what 

 zoo-geographical province Timor-lant belonged. Lying as 

 it does at no great distance from Aru and New Gn iiioa on 

 the east, from Australia to the southward, and from Timor 

 to the west, it was an interesting question which of thorn 

 had behaved most bountifully by it It is surrounded by a 

 very deep sea, deeper, so the captain of one of the Dutch 

 men-of-war surveying in that region just before mv return to 

 Europe informed mo, than is rf^presented in most of the charts. 

 Looking to the birds peculiar to the group, all behing to 

 Papuan genera (and nearly allied to known Papuan species) 

 with the exception of a few species, which have their nearest 

 representatives in Timor or in xiustralia. The insects, on the 

 other hand, as collected by me, sliow a great i^'^ponderance of 

 Timor over Aru or new Guinea forms, with a slight Australian 

 tinge. The presence of snakes and frogs is also of great 

 interest — a new^ species of the former (Simotes forhesi of 

 Boulenger) being remarkable as the only one of the genua 

 known to exist east of Java — when we consider its deep 

 surrounding sea and all the indications that the Tenimber 

 group, which is entirely of coral formation, has been elevated, 

 after a long subsidence above the surface of the sea. 



The most interesting discoveries among the birds were a 

 species of ground-thrush (GeocicMa macJiih')^ figured on the 

 opposite page ; and the finding in I'imor-laut of a iiew species of 

 Honey-eater (Philemon iimorlaoensis)^ (the first bird to attract 

 our attention after landing), mimicked by a new species of 

 Oriole (Oriolus decipiens). For some time I was quite puzzled 

 by the difference of behaviour of certain individuals in flocks 

 of these, birds on the trees. Only after the closest comparison 

 of the dead birds in my hand was the enigma solved by my 



ving that the birds were distinct species, of widely 



*'^. w ... 



removed fanulies, and I learned later that I had obtained 

 new examples of that most curious case of mimicry first 

 detected (among birds) by Mr. Wallace, where an Oriole con- 

 stantly derives protection from its foes by acrpiring the dress 

 of a bird always of the same powerful and gregarious Honey- 

 eaters. In the Island of Burn an Oriole accompanies nnd 



