426 mr. h. o. forbes on birds from [June 17, 



The collection of birds on which Dr. Meyer founds his observations 

 was made by three Amboinese in identically the same region as 

 that from which the collection described by Dr. Sclater last year 

 (P. Z. S. 1883, pp. 48 & 194) was sent by me. Two of these 

 collectors arrived and departed in company with myself, and there- 

 fore spent three months there ; the otiier had arrived tbree months 

 in advance. Being there without any European superintendence, 

 and surrounded by difficulties and dangers, they did not extend 

 tbeir excursions to any great distance from their dwelling in the 

 village of Ritabel. My own limits were also circumscribed ; but my 

 area included and considerably exceeded all the region collected over 

 by these three hunters, and was, of course, far more thoroughly 

 investigated in every way. Inasmuch as I observe that Dr. Meyer 

 in several instances speaks of "Timor-Laut" and " Tenimber," 

 and that the species under consideration in his case came from the 

 " siidlichen (Timor Laut) Stammen " of the region, those collected 

 by me being inferred to come from some other part, it may be well 

 to state that the term "Tenimber Islands" has been applied to 

 the group of islands of which Yamdena (by the Malays called 

 Timor-Laut) is the largest — lying between G° 35'— 8° 25' S. lat., and 

 130° 35-132° 5' E. long. The distance separating the members of 

 the group is so small (the sea at low-tide being in many cases quite 

 shallow between them) that they may be considered almost one 

 great island broken up into fragments. Lutur, spoken of by Dr. 

 Meyer as an island (on the authority of the Resident of Amboina), 

 is part of the mainland of Yamdena. 



Of the birds recorded by Dr. Meyer from Timor-Laut, eight are 

 not included in Dr. Sclater's list; but of these the Accipitrine birds 

 Baza subcristata (Gld.), and Cuncuma (Haliaetus) leucogaster (Gm,), 

 were observed, though not obtained by me ; Urospizias albiventris 

 (Salv.), Sauropatis sancta (V. & H.), and Eurystcmns paci/icus 

 (Lath.) I did not see. There may possibly be some doubt as to the 

 occurrence of the last-named in Timor-Laut. I saw the Amboinese 

 hunters shoot and prepare, on their way home to Amboina, during our 

 stay both in Aru and Ke, several birds and add them to their Timor- 

 Laut collections. "What the species were 1 cannot now remember. 

 As the best of natives cannot be trusted to label skins correctly with- 

 out supervision, this fact adds a slight element of uncertainty as to 

 the locality of some of the specimens. I obtained spirit-specimens of 

 a Hirundo (young), probably H.javanica. I examined, but could 

 not preserve, a specimen of Porphyrio melanoptcrus. The two sea- 

 birds mentioned by Dr. Meyer, and the Geocichla machilci (P. Z. S. 

 1883, p. 588) complete the list of birds at present known from 

 this interesting group. "With the exception of those just men- 

 tioned, Dr. Meyer has had before him no species of which there is 

 not a large series of specimens represented in my collection — those, 

 in fact, on which Dr. Sclater's original descriptions were founded. 

 I have now again carefully gone over them with Dr. Meyer's paper 

 in my hand. 



The Geoffroius determined by Dr. Sclater to be G. keyensis (Salv.) 



