48 MR. p. L. SCLATER ON BIRDS FROM TIMOR-LAUT. [Feb. 20, 



A communication was read from Mr. G. B. Sowerby, jun., con- 

 taining the descriptions of nine new species of shells and of the 

 opercula of two known species. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. On Birds collected in the Timor-Laut or Tenimber Group 

 of Islands by Mr. Henry O. Forbes. By P. L. Sclater^ 

 M.A.J Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. 



[Eeceived February 19, 1883.] 

 (Plates XI. -XIV.) 



I have now the pleasure of placing before the meeting the first- 

 fruits of the expedition to the Timor-Laut, or Tenimber, group of 

 islands, carried out by Mr. Henry O. Forbes under the auspices of 

 the British Association Mast summer. They consist of a selection 

 from Mr. Forbes's series of birds containing 70 skins, referable to 5.5 

 species, being the only portion of his collections that has yet reached 

 England. 



Mr. Forbes passed about three months (July, August, and Sep- 

 tember last) in the Tenimber group. The following extracts from his 

 MS. report will show some of the difficulties which he experienced 

 in commencing his collections : — 



" After an interesting voyage, in which we called at Jessier at the 

 eastern end of Ceram, at two points of New Guinea (where I had 

 an opportunity of going ashore and seeing the people), and at both 

 the Ke and Aroo islands, we landed at the village of Ritabel, in the 

 islet of Larat, which lies off the north-east coast of Yamdena (as the 

 northern of the two portions of Timor Laut is named), at a distance 

 of about fifteen minutes' sail. Within an hour after landing us the 

 'Amboina' steamed away, leaving us to our fate for the next three 

 months. 



" Our first walk to the outskirts of Larat brought us face to face 

 with the rather disagreeable fact that the place was in a state of 

 siege. The whole village was enclosed with a double row of pali- 

 sades ; and the ground on every spot, where not absolutely devoid of 

 vegetation, bristled with bayonet-shaped bamboos pointing in every 

 direction. This was for protection against two neighbouring villages, 

 Keleobar and Lamdesar, one to the right and the other to the left 

 of us, who every now and then had been making midnight raids and 

 sudden day-attacks on the Ritabel people, picking off with flint- 

 lock and arrow every unsuspecting villager, and then making off. 

 The dismembered bodies of the victims of these expeditions were to 

 be seen swinging about in the breeze from the limbs of the trees near 

 the village-gates, and dangling from pole-ends on the platforms erected 



^ See Reports of the Timor-Laut Committee in Eep. Brit. Assoc. 1881, p. 197, 

 and 1882, p. 275. 



