IN TIMOR-LAUT. 337 



fewer than twenty forms, and of the butterflies and insects 

 nearly one-half, that were undescribed before. 



One of the objects of my visit was to determine ia what 



zoo-geographical province Timor-laut belonged. Lying as 



it does at no great distance from Am and New Guinea on 



the east, from Australia to the southward, and from Timor 



to the Avest, it was an interesting question which of them 



had behaved most bountifully by it. It is surrounded by a 



very deep sea, deeper, so the captain of one of the Dutch 



men-of-war surveying in that region just before my return to 



Europe informed me, than is represented in most of the charts. 



Looking to the birds peculiar to the group, all belong to 



Papuan genera (and nearly allied to known Papuan species) 



with the exception of a few species, which have their nearest 



representatives in Timor or in Australia. The insects, on the 



other hand, as collected by me, show a great preponderance of 



Timor over Aru or new Guinea forms, with a slight Australian 



tinge. The presence of snakes and frogs is also of great 



interest — a new species of the former (Simotes forhesi of 



Boulenger) being remarkable as the only one of the genus 



known to exist east of Java — when we consider its deep 



surrounding sea and all the indications that the Tenimber 



group, which is entirely of coral formation, has been elevated, 



after a long subsidence above the surface of the sea. 



The most interesting discoveries among the birds were a 

 species of ground-thrush {Geocichla maehihi), figured on the 

 opposite page ; and the finding in Timor-laut of a new species of 

 Honey-eater {Philemon iimorlaoensis), (the first bird to attract 

 our attention after landing), mimicked by a new species of 

 Oriole (Oriolus decipiens). For some time I was quite puzzled 

 by the difference of behaviour of certain individuals in flocks 

 of these, birds on the trees. Only after the closest comparison 

 of the dead birds in my hand was the enigma solved by my 

 perceiving that the birds were distinct species, of widely 

 removed families, and I learned later that I had obtained 

 new examples of that most curious case of mimicry first 

 detected (among birds) by Mr. Wallace, where an Oriole con- 

 stantly derives protection from its foes by acquiring the dress 

 of a bird always of the same powerful and gregarious Honey- 

 eaters. In the Island of Burn an Oriole accompanies and 



