DR. L. F. DE BEAUFORT, BIRDS FROM DUTCH NEW GUINEA. 389 



BIRDS FROM DUTCH NEW GUINEA 



BY 



Dr. L, F. DE BEAUFORT. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The collection of birds mentioned in thèse pages was made in 1903 by Mr. H. A. 

 Lorentz and me during the Dutch New Guinea Expédition which was led by Prof. Arthur 

 Wichmann. By far the greater part was collected on the north coast in the neighbourhood 

 of Humboldt Bay, where we resided during 4 months, but besides this, birds were collected 

 along the Geelvink Bay [Jamur, Baivé, Napan, Wendesi, Siari) and on the isles of Rôti, S 'upiori 

 (Schouten Isles), Ajawi [Mios Kairu) and Aifondi {Mios Korzvar) and Liki {Arimoa or Kumamba Isles). 

 During our stay at Humboldt Bay an intelligent Javanese collected some birds for us 

 at Manokwari [Doré) while we purchased at Humboldt Bay a collection made by a native 

 collector along the Tami river (n°. 309 — 351 of the collection). The différent localities men- 

 tioned in the following pages can be found on the accompanying map. 



As our time was chiefly devoted to the collecting of zoological objects of other 

 classes, we had not much time to shoot birds ourselves or to study their biology. Some field 

 notes however were made and although they don't contain many new facts I thought it best 

 to give them as they are, without any références to previous observers. I hâve given a gênerai 

 account of our observations on the avifauna near Humboldt Bay in the meeting of the 

 .Nederlandsche Ornithologische Vereeniging" of the 5th of November 1904 (Verslagen en 

 Mededeelingen n°. 1 p. 56). I consider it of great value to give a description of the country 

 where collections are made and it would be désirable that every collector did the same; the 

 occurence of some bird species at a certain locality and the wanting of others would be 

 easily explained if we only knew the circumstances in which the birds hâve to live there, 

 wheras now it is often quite incompréhensible. As a rule the country in this part of New 

 Guinea is covered with woods from the seashore up to the top of the mountains and it is 

 in thèse woods that most of the birds were collected. The pigeons of the gênera Carpopliaga, 

 Goura, Reinwardtoena, Macropygia and some of the Ptilinopus species, the différent parrots, 

 kingfishers of the genus Halcyon, Sauromarptis gaudichaud and Clytoceyx rex were shot hère. 

 In the dry parts of the wood, where no Pandanus and Sago palms grow, one often hears 



