ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS. 349 



short remarks on the island of Jobie, or Jobi, from which it takes its name. 

 Situated at the entrance of the great bay on the northern side of New Guinea, 

 ninety miles long, traversed by a ridge of mountains, and without a single cove 

 or creek suitable to receive a large ship, it is described thus by Mr. Wallace, 

 in his ' Malay Archipelago/ vol. ii. p. 112 : — 



With respect to its natives, he states that " they are in a very barbarous 

 condition, and take every opportunity of robbery and murder — a habit which 

 is confirmed by the impunity they experience, owing to the vast extent of 

 wild mountain- and forest- country forbidding all pursuit or attempt at 

 punishment." 



Again, p. 319 : — 



'^ Jobie is a very dangerous place; and sailors are often murdered there 

 when on shore; sometimes the vessels themselves are attacked." 



Such was the bad character given to the island in 1869, when Mr. 

 Wallace pubUshed that charming work, the 'Malay Archipelago.' In fact, 

 it was little known zoologically before the visits of Von Rosenberg, 

 Dr. Meyer, and Beccari. Now, however, its avifauna appears to be pretty 

 well established. 



A list of all known species from this island, from time to time, is 

 valuable in the interest of Geographical Distribution, so well inaugurated by 

 Mr. Wallace, and also a similar knowledge of every one within the vast 

 archipelago of the East. 



This kind of study, pursued with exactness, will bring to Hght a series 

 of unknown laws on the mode of zoological dispersion, and perhaps the 

 reasons of variation. 



In Mr. Wallace's time Jobi occupied this position in the world : it was 

 a place whereto imperfectly known and rare species of birds could be 

 relegated, as, for instance Edectus cornelia, Bp. Q' probably either Ceram-laut 



