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of Ceram and Waigiou. 
hesitatingly pronounce Waigiou to be the very poorest island in 
the New Guinea zoological region. 
On my arrival in Ternate I found my assistant Mr. Allen, 
who had spent more than six months in My sol, and it was with 
much anxiety I proceeded to examine his collection. I was much 
disappointed, however, in finding almost all my own birds over 
again, with the addition of a fewDorey species and about 15-16 
new to me, mostly of the genera Campephaga, Rectes , Myiolestes , 
and a few Hawks,—a Rail, a Kingfisher, and the Eos atra. 
Owing to his having to return to Ceram for rice, and waiting 
there two months till it arrived from Amboyna, he missed the 
season for the Paradise-birds, obtaining only a single P.papuana , 
a few P. regia , and of the third species which inhabits the island, 
Diphyllodes magnifica , only a native skin. Successive visits of 
several months each to four distinct Papuan districts have only 
produced me four species of Paradise-birds, while the general 
run of the birds is so nearly identical in all as to make a fifth 
visit absolutely profitless, except by obtaining the remaining 
species of these beautiful creatures. I have, however, at length 
obtained very precise information as to where the greater part, 
if not all, of my desiderata in Paradisece and Epimachidce are to 
be obtained, and in a few days Mr. Allen starts for this locality 
with every requisite for a thorough exploration, in my own 
Goram prahaw, and accompanied by a lieutenant and two soldiers 
from the Sultan of Tidore to assist and protect him. If he does 
not succeed this time, I must give up the attempt in despair. 
He touches for a few weeks at Guebe, and on his return goes for 
a month to the Xulla Islands, which contain the Babirusa, but 
of which the fauna is otherwise totally unknown. 
I myself leave by the next steamer for Timor Belli: on my 
return I spend two months at Bouru, where the Babirusa is also 
found; but whether its fauna is of the Moluccan or of the 
Celebes type, we are yet ignorant. In September we are to 
meet again here, to pack up our collections, and shall then finally 
quit the district of the Moluccas and New Guinea. Please 
make allowance for these hasty notes, written amid the confusion 
and fatigue of packing. 
Ternate, Dec. 20th, 1860. 
