324 GrlLOLO. 



On my return from Waigiou in 1860, 1 staid some days on 

 the southern extremity of Gilolo ; but, beyond seeing some- 

 thing more of its structure and general character, obtained 

 very little additional information. It is only in the northern 

 peninsula that there are any indigenes, the whole of the rest of 

 the island, with Batchian and the other islands westward, be- 

 ing exclusively inhabited by Malay tribes, allied to those of 

 Ternate and Tidore. This Avould seem to indicate that the 

 Alfuros were a comparatively recent immigration, and that 

 they had come from the north or east, perhaps from some of 

 the islands of the Pacific. It is otherwise difficult to under- 

 stand how so many fertile districts should possess no true 

 indigenes. 



Gilolo, or Halmaheira, as it is called by the Malays and 

 Dutch, seems to have been recently modified by upheaval and 

 subsidence. In 1673 a mountain is said to have been upheaved 

 at Gamokonora, on the northern peninsula. All the parts that 

 I have seen have either been volcanic or coralline, arid along 

 the coast there are fringing coral reefs very dangerous to nav- 

 igation. At the same time the character of its natural history 

 proves it to be a rather ancient land, since it possesses a num- 

 ber of animals peculiar to itself or common to the small isl- 

 ands around it, but almost always distinct from those of New 

 Guinea on the east, of Ceram on the south, and of Celebes and 

 the Sula Islands on the west. 



The island of Morty, close to the north-eastern extremity 

 of Gilolo, was visited by my assistant Charles AUen, as well as 

 by Dr. Bernstein ; and the collections obtained there present 

 some curious differences from those of the main island. 

 About fifty-six species of land-birds are known to inhabit this 

 island, and of these a kingfisher (Tanysiptera doris), a honey- 

 sucker (Tropidorhynchus fuscicapillus), and a large crow-like 

 starling (Lycocorax morotensis), are quite distinct from allied 

 species found in Gilolo. The island is coralline and sandy, 

 and we must therefore believe it to have been sej^arated from 

 Gilolo at a somewhat remote epoch ; while we learn from its 

 natural history that an arm of the sea twenty-five miles wide 

 serves to limit the range even of birds of considerable powers 

 of flight. 



