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


be patient with a hurry-scurry, wild-eyed person like myself who,

whenever birds were mentioned, was of! in a torrent of conversation and

usually was asking all sorts of favours before he was done.


From Halmahera, the course lies to New Guinea via the famous

island of Waigeo, ten miles or so north-west of the mainland. Waigeo

is the home of the Red Bird of Paradise. It is one of the really beautiful

islands of the world. At Saonek, the port of the island, natives paddled

out to the mail boat with samples of the local arts and crafts—weaving

with palm, orchid and pandannas leaves, wood carving, and also

with a few birds. If they know that there is someone on the boat

interested in birds they will bring many more out when it stops on its

return trip. I saw Rajah Cockatoos, Crowned Pigeons, small Lories,

principally the Black-capped, and a pair of the beautiful White Torres

Strait Pigeon, Ducula spillorohoa. I bought a tame young female

Eclectus here.


Sorong, the next stop, is a tiny island about fifteen minutes, by native

canoe, from the extreme western mainland of Dutch New Guinea.

Here there are many natives acquainted with bird trapping and a word

to the native magistrate of the island should net many birds on the

return trip. Most of the birds which I have seen offered for sale were

from near Sorong. Lesser, Twelve Wired, King, and sometimes

Magnificent Birds of Paradise are all moderately easy to obtain.

Parrots are numerous and of many kinds, from Cockatoos down to even

the tiny Micropsitta Parrotlets, including the unusual Black Lories

and the pale-tinted, big-eyed Geoffroyus Parrots. Also Pigeons are

common. I bought a lovely Megaloprepia Fruit Pigeon, grey head,

neck, and throat, green back with yellow spotted wings and cherry

coloured breast and belly ; a delight to the eye and exceedingly tame.

I also bought a young Podargus, the Giant Frogmouth of Papua, which

sat solemnly on a branch in the hand of its native captor, blinking

its enormous eyes, more like an owl at first sight than anything else.

Here, too, I was offered several Megapodes for sale and was tempted

to take them, except that they seemed too wild ever to learn to eat

properly. At another time, living in the mountains of New Guinea, I

tried to tame some full-grown wild trapped birds without success.

Also some of the big Pheasant-like Ground Pigeons, Otidiphaps nobilis,



