My Collection of Birds. 539 



The country round about Bessir was very hilly and rugged, 

 bristling with jagged and honey-combed coralline rocks, and 

 with curious little chasms and ravines.- The paths often pass- 

 ed through these rocky clefts, which in the depths of the for- 

 est were gloomy and dark in the extreme, and often full of 

 fine-leaved herbaceous plants and curious blue-foliaged Lyco- 

 podiacejB. It was in such places as these that I obtained many 

 of my most beautiful small butterflies, such as Sospita statira 

 and Taxila pulchra, the gorgeous blue Amblypodia hercules, 

 and many others. On the skirts of the plantations I found 

 the handsome blue Deudorix despoena, and in the shady woods 

 the lovely Lycoena wallacei. Here, too, I obtained the beauti- 

 ful Thyca aruna, of the richest orange on the upper side, while 

 below it is intense ci'imson and glossy black ; and a superb 

 specimen of a green Ornithoptera, absolutely fresh and perfect, 

 and which still remains one of the glories of my cabinet. 



My collection of birds, though not very rich in number of 

 species, was yet very interesting. I got another specimen of 

 the i"are New Guinea kite (Henicopernis longicauda), a large 

 new goatsucker (Podargus superciliaris), and a most curious 

 ground-pigeon of an entirely new genus, and remarkable for its 

 long and powerful bill. It has been named Henicophaps albi- 

 frons. I was also much pleased to obtain a fine series of a 

 large fruit-pigeon with a protuberance on the bill (Carpophaga 

 tumida),and to ascertain that this was not, as had been hith- 

 erto supposed, a sexual character, but was found equally in 

 male and female birds. I collected only seventy-three species 

 of birds in Waigiou, but twelve of them were entirely new, and 

 many others very rare ; and as I brought away with me twen- 

 ty-four fine specimens of the Paradisea rubra, I did not regret 

 my visit to the island, although it had by no means answered 

 my expectations. 



