Birds. 5117 



pelago — Celebes, the larger Molucca Islands, Timor, and, if possible, 

 New Guinea. I feel myself now far better qualified than if I had 

 gone at once to those countries. I have acquired the Malayan 

 language, and have become acquainted with the manners, customs 

 and prejudices of the people. I have learned much by experience in 

 Eastern collecting, and have obtained such a knowledge of the pro- 

 ductions of the western portion of the Archipelago as will add greatly 

 to my pleasure and interest while exploring the Eastern. 



I look forward, in fact, with unmixed satisfaction to my visit to the 

 rich and almost unexplored Spice Islands, — the land of the Lories, 

 the cockatoos and the birds of paradise, the country of tortoise-shell 

 and pearls, of beautiful shells and rare insects. I look forward with 

 expectation and awe to visiting lands exposed to destruction from the 

 sleeping volcano and its kindred earthquake ; and not less do I anti- 

 cipate the pleasures of observing the varied races of mankind, and of 

 becoming familiar with the manners, customs and modes of thought 

 of people so far removed from the European races and European 

 civilization. 



The physical privations which must be endured during such 

 journeys are of little importance, except as injuring health and 

 incapacitating from active exertion. Intellectual wants are much 

 more trying : the absence of intimate friends, the craving for intel- 

 lectual and congenial society, make themselves severely felt, and 

 would be unbearable were it not for the constant employment and 

 ever-varying interest of a collector's life, and the pleasures of looking 

 forward to a time when the stores now amassed will furnish inex- 

 haustible food for study and reflection, and call back to memory the 

 strange beautiful scenes among which they have been obtained. 



A. R. Wallace. 



Singapore, March 10, 1856. 



A List of the Birds of Banffshire, accompanied with Anecdotes. 

 By Thomas Edward, Collector of and Dealer in Natural- 

 History Specimens at Banff. 



Before I begin to enumerate the species, a few words concerning 

 the district, the varied and interesting Ornithology of which I am 

 about to record, may not be without interest, especially to those to 

 whom it is entirely unknown. Banffshire is situate on the South side 



