I 



536 WAJCrfOfL fCMAT. XXXVl 



them to have been disbon&it witliout fear of detection or 

 pmiishment. 



The country ronud about Bessir was very hilly and 

 ni;jgt'd. bristling with ja«rgt'd and honey-combed coral- 

 line rocks, and with curious littlo chasms and ravines. 

 The paths ollen passed tlirough these rocky clefts, which 

 in the depths of the forest were gloomy and dark in the 

 extreme, and often full of tine-leaved lierbaceon.s plants 

 and curious blue-foliaged Lyeopodiaceie. It was in such 

 places as these that I obtained many of my most beau- 

 tiful small butterflies, such as Sospita statim and Taxila 

 pulchra, the goi-geous blue Amblypodia hercules, and many 

 others. On the skirts of the plantations I fomitl the hanti- 

 somc lilue Deiidorix despoena, and in the shady woods the 

 lovely Lyca>na wallacei Here., too, 1 obtained the beau- 

 tiful Thyca arima, of the richest oninge on tlio upper side, 

 while below it is intense crimson and glossy black ; and 

 a superb specimen of a green Ornitlioptera, al)solutely 

 fresh and perfect, and which still remains one of the 

 glories of my cabinet. 



My collection of binls, though not very rich in number 

 of species, was yet very interesting, i got another speci- 

 men of the rare New Guinea kite (Henicopernis longi- 

 cauda), a large new goatsucker (Podargus supt^rciliaris), 

 and a most curious ground-pigeon of an entirely new genus, 

 and remarkable for its long and powerful bill. It has 

 been named Henicophapa albifrons. I was also much 

 pleased to obtain a tine series of a large fruit-pigeou with 

 a protuberance on the bill {Carpophaga tumida), and to 

 ascertain that this was not, as had been hitherto supposed, 

 a sexual character, but was found equally in male and 

 i'emale birds. I collected only seventy-three species of 

 birds in Waigion, but twelve of them were entirely new, 

 and many othei-s very rare ; and as I brought away with 

 me twenty-four fine specimens of the Paradisea nibm, I 

 did not regret my visit to the island, although it had by 

 no means answered my expectations. 



