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remained unique until other examples were obtained by Dr. M!eyer in the locality where Torsten 
first discovered it. 
In a letter written from Menado, Celebes, in March 1871, Dr. A. B. Meyer gives (J. f. O. 
1871, p. 231) the following facts respecting this bird “ In 1840 Torsten discovered a bird which 
Schlegel subsequently described under the name of Merops forsteni. Only one specimen was 
sent to Leyden, and it has long been a desideratum with ornithologists, both on account of its 
rarity and more especially because of its resemblance to another, a West- African, species. In 
Leyden every exertion was made to obtain further specimens of M. forsteni, but without avail. 
Wallace did not succeed in finding it ; and Rosenberg remained some time at the place where 
it was first obtained in order to procure it, but was unable to secure a single specimen. I 
have now succeeded in obtaining several examples, both males and females, at the very place 
near Rurukan where Wallace collected for some time. This lovely bird lives in the dense 
forests in places difficult of access, is found on the highest trees, and in habits resembles the other 
Meropidse. It does not appear to be at all rare, but is difficult to find, as it retires to the 
dense forests. Thus the bird is unknown to the natives, and I only succeeded in procuring it 
after infinite trouble.” 
Beyond this all that we know respecting this species is found in Dr. A. B. Meyer’s 
further notes published in 1879 (‘ Ibis,’ 1879, pp. 58, 59), as follows : — “There existed before my 
journey to Celebes only one male specimen of this interesting species in the Leyden Museum, 
obtained by Torsten, in the year 1840, near Tondano, at an elevation of 2000 feet in the 
Minahassa. Professor Schlegel showed me the specimen before I went away in 1870, and urged 
me to rediscover it, as none of Torsten’s successors (Wallace, Rosenberg, and others) had brought 
it home. Mr. Wallace, in his charming book, ‘ The Malay Archipelago ’ (i. p. 429), says, in the 
chapter on the 'Natural History of Celebes,’ ‘In the next family, the Bee-eaters, is another 
equally isolated bird, Meropogon forsteni, which combines the characters of African and Indian 
Bee-eaters, and whose only near ally, Meropogon Ireioeri, was discovered by M. Du Chaillu in 
West Africa !’ African affinities being said to give a characteristic feature to the Celebean fauna, 
and, besides, M. forsteni being so rare that the Celebean origin of the bird was doubted, I 
resolved to do my best in searching after it. I therefore made about a hundred coloured sketches, 
and distributed them among the natives, to send away into the mountainous districts, and put a 
relatively high reward on a skin. I got the first specimen at the end of the month of May 1871 
from a forest near Rurukan, not very far from the place where Torsten had procured his specimen 
some thirty years before; and afterwards, in June, I found the bird in the richest virgin forest 
which I have seen in these regions, on the way from Langowan (about 2000 feet) to Pangku, 
where it appeared to be not so rare. I suppose that M. forsteni only inhabits the mountainous 
districts, like Enodes erythrophrys, Memiphaga forsteni, &c. ; but, of course, I am not sure of 
this. I should not say these birds are rare, but only known to occur in restricted localities ; 
if only these localities are discovered, the bird proves then to be numerous. It is the same with 
certain butterflies which have been declared to be rare ones, such as Papilio blmnei, P. androcles, 
&c. ; they also do not, or at least rarely, occur near Menado, where most travellers have collected, 
and therefore have the reputation of being rare ; but I found places in Celebes where any quantity 
of them can be procured. They are not collected in greater quantities because nearly every one 
who travels there does not remain a long time on those spots. It will be the same with other animals. 
Of course there are also animals which really are only represented by very few individuals ; 
but these are perhaps either aberrant species, or such as are on the way to becoming extinct. 
