PREFACE ix 



gold, reminds one strangely of the most conspicuous 

 of the Papuan birds, the Birds of Paradise, famous 

 for the brilliant or strange ornamental plumage of 

 the males during the mating season. Only a few 

 species of this bird family occur outside New Guinea 

 (in Queensland and the Northern Moluccas), and it is 

 very remarkable that none have been found on the 

 Solomon Islands, the fauna of which is otherwise 

 so closely related to that of New Guinea. As the 

 Crown Pigeons (Goura), also characteristic of New 

 Guinea, are represented in the Solomons by a minia- 

 ture form, the Microgoura discovered by A. S. Meek, 

 one might likewise expect some sort of Paradise 

 bird to occur in the mountains of Guadalcanar or 

 Bougainville. These mountains are as yet untouched 

 by the collector. Meek postponed their exploration, 

 partly on account of the difficulty of supply for a 

 large camp far away from the coast, and partly 

 because his time was taken up by the different 

 islands of the Solomon group on which it was im- 

 portant to make collections. The Solomons, small 

 as they appear on the map of an atlas, are a fascinat- 

 ing group for the naturalist. The majority of the 

 species occurring are found on almost every one of 

 the larger islands, but nearly every species has on 

 each island some characteristic feature not met with 

 in the specimens of that species obtained on any 

 other island. This phenomenon of geographical 

 variation is strikingly illustrated by the collections 



