236 THE MOLUCCAS. [chap. 



not appear that any people of Papuan race ever established them- 

 selves here, as was the case m Gilolo to tlie north, and the islands 

 of Bouru and Ceram to the south. 



The spot where we landed had been contemplated as the site of 

 a future settlement, and with that end in view some tomatoes and 

 pmnpkins, as well as a few coconut palms, had been planted by 

 the Kontroleur on a former visit. He was anxious to inspect them, 

 and also to explore the forest for gutta and other trees of commercial 

 value, and we started up the river at once. Although nearly sixty 

 yards broad at the mouth, it soon became so shoal that we were 

 unable to ascend it for more than a few hundred yards, and we 

 accordingly disembarked and scattered in various directions through 

 the jungle. Birds were numerous, and conspicuous among them 

 small flocks of a little scarlet lory common enough in the Moluccas 

 {Eos riciniata) tiew from tree-top to tree-top, far beyond the range 

 of a gun. Another lory of brilliant colouring (LoriusJlai-o-jMlliatus), 

 peculiar to Batchian and the Obi group — crimson and olive, with a 

 splash of golden yellow in the centre of the back — I could perceive 

 in little parties of half a dozen or so, busily engaged in devouring 

 the soft fruits of some species of Ficus just then ripenmg, and 

 before many minutes I had a couple of specimens in line plumage 

 in my collecting -bag. But for a long time I could see nothing of 

 the magnificent racquet-tailed kingfisher of wliich I was in search.^ 

 I tried some marshy gTOund by the river in vain, and was on my 

 way to the seashore when I suddenly came across Usman, and to 

 my great delight saw that he had got two of these rare and lovely 

 bu'ds slung at his breast — the method of carrying their spoil that 

 the Malay hunters almost invariably adopt. I soon reached the 

 spot where he had shot them. It was an untempting-looking bit 



1 This genus ( Tanysiptcra), -which is so remarkable for beauty of colouring and 

 the extraordinary length and shape of the tail, is confined entirely to the Pai)uan 

 and iloluccan regions, and includes a dozen or more dififerent species, almost all of 

 which have the plumage of various shades of blue. Obi is furnished with a peculiar 

 species — as it is in several other genera — discovered bj' Bernstein, the first and only 

 naturalist visitor to its shores. 



