434 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



is about 770 ; and there can be little doubt that within a 

 dozen more years they will reach 800. 



If we compare this number with those of other tropical 

 islands on the globe we shall find a remarkable superiority. 

 Next in size is Borneo, long thought to be the largest true 

 island on the globe, and more favourably situated in its 

 proximity to the Asiatic continent ; yet, even if we allow 

 for considerable additions during the last ten years, it 

 possesses less than 450 land-birds. Next comes Madagas- 

 car, about two-thirds the area of the Papuan islands, yet 

 it possesses barely 200 species of land-birds, although here 

 again its position with regard to Africa seems very ad- 

 vantageous. The whole of the West Indian Islands 

 (excluding Trinidad) forming the Antillean sub-region, 

 has about one-third the area of New Guinea, but being 

 scattered over a larger extent of sea and being in close 

 proximity to two continents from both of which it receives 

 numerous emigrants, would seem to be very advantageously 

 situated, yet it has less than 300 species of land-birds. 

 Then we have the great island-continent of Australia, 

 with an area of close on 3,000,000 square miles, or about 

 nine times that of the Papuan islands, with the advantage 

 of both tropical, sub-tropicai and temperate climates, yet 

 possessing less than 500 species of land-birds. 



These comparisons render it certain that as regards a 

 rich and magnificent bird-fauna no islands in the world 

 can compare with New Guinea, and >it seems doubtful 

 whether any equal area within the tropics contains a larger 

 number of species. When we "consider, further, that less 

 than half its area is known, and even that portion very imper- 

 fectly, while its most extensive mountain ranges are quite 

 unexplored, it becomes almost certain that New Guinea will 

 ultimately rank as the richest bird-district in the whole 

 world — a very ornithological paradise for the collectors 

 and bird-lovers of the Twentieth Century. 



The Papuans. 



The peculiar race of mankind inhabiting this great 

 island attracted the attention of the earliest voyagers, and 



