XX NEW GUINEA AND ITS INHABITANTS 433 



patches of crimson, blue, or yellow, on a pure green ground. 

 Parrots are wonderfully varied, including the great black 

 and the white cockatoos ; the lories, varied with crimson 

 and purple, green, yellow, and black ; while there are 

 strange little crested green parrots hardly larger than our 

 blue tit — the smallest of the parrot-tribe, as the great 

 black cockatoos are the largest. Kingfishers, too, are re- 

 markably abundant, and include several of the fine racquet- 

 tailed species, with plumage of silvery blue, and with white 

 or crimson breasts. One of these is figured on the plate 

 at p. 424. It is the Tany$iptera gcdatea of the north-west 

 peninsula. It is bright blue and Avhite, with a coral red 

 bill. Many other groups of birds are also adorned with 

 exceptionally gay colours ; and a careful comparison with 

 the birds of other countries shows, that nowhere in the 

 world is there so large a proportion of the whole number 

 of species adorned with brilliant hues. Among insects 

 the same thing occurs, though not in quite so marked a 

 degree ; yet the superior beauty of many groups of beetles 

 over the corresponding groups in Borneo is very distinct ; 

 and the same is to some extent the case with the butter- 

 flies and moths. 



Independently of the beauty and singularity, the great 

 number of species of birds inhabiting New Guinea is very 

 remarkable. Considering that there are no resident col- 

 lectors in the island, and that our knowledge is wholly 

 derived from tri^vellers who have spent a few weeks 

 or months on the extreme northern or southern coasts 

 only, leaving the great mass of the interior wholly un- 

 explored, the number of land-birds already known is 

 surprising. 



Mr. Ernst Hartert, the curator of the Hon. L. Walter 

 Rothschild's museum at Tring, has kindly given me the 

 number of birds known to inhabit the Papuan area, that 

 is New Guinea, and those small islands immediately around 

 it and separated from it by a shallow sea either wholly 

 within or only just beyond the 100 fathom line. These 

 are the Aru Islands, Mysol, Waigiou, the islands in Geelvink 

 Bay, and those near the east end of New Guinea. The 

 number of true land- birds now known from these islands 



VOL. I. F F 



