S. D. Riplay—Round about Dutch New Guinea 267


ROUND ABOUT DUTCH NEW GUINEA


By S. Dillon Riplay


To all people interested in birds tbe name New Guinea spells

romance and high adventure. Now in these days of rapid transit,

when the last frontiers to the unknown are crumbling New Guinea

has been added to the list of accessible places to be visited. Accessible

indeed even to the most casual traveller. To any bird-lover, then, who

has happened, in the course of his wanderings, to arrive either in

Singapore or anywhere within the Dutch East Indies, the writer would

hasten to advise a trip to Dutch New Guinea. To be sure, it is a fact

that even in Batavia, Sourabaya, or Singapore, nine out of ten people

who live there will be just as convinced that New Guinea is horribly

dangerous and inhabited solely by fearsome cannibals as any inhabitant

of England or America. I cannot entirely refute that opinion, having

lived with cannibals in Dutch New Guinea for a period of months, but

that it is a dangerous place to visit, I am strongly inclined to doubt.


Nowadays the K.P.M. Line, the largest of the Dutch Lines, runs

two monthly mail and cargo steamers to Dutch New Guinea from

Makassar, the principal port of the island of Celebes, itself a two-day

steamer journey from Sourabaya in Java, or four days from Singapore.

The boats are comfortable, with good service and both Sourabaya and

Makassar have excellent hotels.


While in Java I went to the bird markets, in Batavia and Sourabaya,

but was disappointed as the variety of birds was small. Bulbuls and

Barbets were the common varieties of insectivora. Of the former the

Yellow-vented and Ruby-throated were the commonest, both Java

species ; and of the latter the Blue-crowned and the Dull. Java

Sparrows were in large numbers and of course the lit lie Zebra Dove,

or barred Ground Dove, much admired by the natives, as well as the

larger Double-Collared or Island Turtle Dove. A few shops had good

talking Mynahs, but their owners knew their value. Paroquets were

fairly common, all of the “ Alexandriform, but in one shop I was very

tempted by a tiny cage full of the Vernal Hanging Loriquets. No

Pheasants or Jungle Fowl were to be seen, but in Sourabaya I saw a



