S. D. Riplay—Round about Dutch New Guinea 273


mandated territory of New Guinea. Strangely enough Dutch and

Australian Papua have virtually no contact with each other : no boats

go between the two places and the border line, drawn down the centre

of New Guinea, might as well divide it into two separate islands.

Hollandia is poorer in birds than the other ports and the short stop

of the boat allows only a brief walk on the shore. The situation of the

village is very beautiful though. The mountains, little bays, and native

villages raised out over the water, for all the world like a picture of

early Swiss lake dwellers, make a beautiful scene. The natives here are

good carvers and often have interesting things for sale. Dutch New

Guinea is refreshing in this way. It has no tourist trade and so the few

articles for sale are most likely to have been made only for Papuan use

and sold as an afterthought.


Serui on the island of Japen in Geelvink Bay is in another picturesque

harbour with mountains on three sides and on the fourth, across the

shallow waters of the bay, the foothills of the great Snow Mountain

range, the backbone of New Guinea, can sometimes be seen. Japen

contains many interesting varieties of birds. I have seen Victoria

Crowned Pigeons for sale, and there are different sub-species of both

and King and the Lesser Birds of Paradise, as well as of many smaller

birds. Insectivora are, naturally, both hard to obtain and hard to keep

on the long journey home. Some of the species of Fantails and Fly¬

catchers tame readily enough, however, and I kept a pair of the common

“ Willy Wagtail ”, Rhipidura leucophrys, for some time. A delicate

little bird which would have done well enough, I am convinced, if I

had had more experience, was the Buby-chested Honeysucker,

Myzomela eques, a dun-coloured bird with a flaming scarlet patch on

the lower throat and breast. It may well be that the honey from which

I made nectar for it was artificially made and possibly contained some

harmful element. New Guinea has a family of Kingfishers lovely beyond

all others—the stunning cerulean and white Bacquet-tailed, Tanysiptera.

They are birds of the lowland forest and some natives are fairly good at

catching them with a sort of bird lime of native manufacture called

“ gutta ” made from the sap of a tree. But this is a bird too difficult

save for the aviculturist of genius. They fade and droop in captivity

and seem to absorb no nourishment even when forcibly fed.



