BOOK NOTICE. 21 S 



advanced with great speed and demonstration the poor "turkeys" flew into trees 

 and sat there to be shot down in succession. But if slowly approached they ran 

 off into the jungle before giving a shot. The genus is Australo-Papuan, and 

 Dr. Guillemard agrees with Mr. Wallace in considering its extension to the Nicobars 

 as due to human agency. Another westernmost form was a brush-tongued lory 

 (Trichoglossus omatus). The genus is strong in Papua and Australia; and one 

 species [T. pumilus) is one of the various "love birds" of our aviaries. 



The party procured two specimens of the Sapi-utan ( Anoa depresslcornis), which 

 is not a monkey, but a forest-bull (as the Malay name implies) ; and left 

 Celebes for Ternate. Here, in the aviary of a Dutch District Officer, they were 

 introduced to many Papuan birds which, at a later period of the voyage, they were 

 to see at liberty. 



One of the strangest of these was the heavy Black Cockatoo (Microglossus 

 aterrimus) the only bird whose beak is strong enough to crack " kanari nuts"; and 

 another the strangely vulturine parrot Dasyptilus Pecqueti. There were birds of 

 Paradise too, but no reviewer has space to quote the eloquence with which the 

 sight of these lovely creatures alive inspires the dullest traveller. 



From Ternate the " Marchesa" sailed to Batchian and Obi ; where the thing best 

 worth mentioning, perhaps, was a racket-tailed king-fisher [Tanysiptera obiensis). 

 It is strange how this peculiar form of tail-feather hangs about the skirts of the 

 Malayan region, occurring in birds of veiy various diet and habit, from India to 

 New Guinea. Another bird peculiar to the group, Lorius, fiavo-palliatus, was 

 shot while feeding on wild figs. It is " crimson and olive, with a splash of golden- 

 yellow in the centre of the back," whence the name. The Malay hunters carry 

 valuable spoil of this sort slung across their breasts, a good plan, as a light bird 

 so carried would probably suffer little damage to its feathers. 



On a small island called Bisu they obtained the Nicobar pigeon (Calanas 

 Nicobar-ica) which, says Dr. Guillemard, is generally distributed, yet rare, in the 

 Eastern Isles. Its somewhat helpless bulk and terrestrial habits (in accordance 

 with which its appearance is very gallinaceous) induce it to prefer remote islets 

 unfrequented by man and other predatory mammals. 



In this group tbey got their first birds of Paradise, the " Standard-wing" 

 {Semioptera Wallacei) ; the only Paradiseid found out of the Papuan Islands, as 

 restricted, and extremely aberrant from the rest of the family. 



They also assisted at a deer-hunt, which seems to have been a scramble of many 

 men and " pie " dogs; and saw sago being made. 



On leaving Batchian, they touched'at the desolate Weda Islands to shoot Nicobar 

 pigeons, and saw none, but got many other pigeons, including Carpophaga Myris- 

 ticivora " hitherto supposed to be confined to New Guinea and the true Papuan 

 Islands" (page 24-7) and described as of "shining green plumage." It is not to be 

 confused with Myristicivora bi-color, mentioned on page 2 of the same volume, 

 which is mostly white and Borneau in habitat. They got a new red lory (-Bos 

 insularis) ; and a fine coloured plate of him is the frontispiece to the second 

 volume. But the Weda isles have no anchorage, and the party had to re-embark, 

 and sailed for the New Guinea group. Here they remained until December, 

 collecting birds of Paradise chiefly ; and other things too numerous to mention, 

 and then returned home by way of Sulu. 

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