Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This is situated in a large open space, at a spot where two tributaries fall into the main
stream. Several forest-paths and new clearings offered fine collecting grounds, and I cap-
tured some new and interesting insects; but as it was getting late I had to reserve a more
thorough exploration for future occasions. Coal had been discovered here some years be-
fore, and the road was made in order to bring down a sufficient quantity for a fair trial on the
Dutch steamers. The quality, however, was not thought sufficiently good, and the mines
were abandoned. Quite recently, works had been commenced in another spot, in hopes of
finding a better vein. There were about eighty men employed, chiefly convicts; but this was
far too small a number for mining operations in such a country, where the mere keeping a
few miles of road in repair requires the constant work of several men. If coal of sufficiently
good quality should be found, a tramroad would be made, and would be very easily worked,
owing to the regular descent of the valley.
Just as I got home I overtook Ali returning from shooting with some birds hanging from
his belt. He seemed much pleased, and said, 'Look here, sir, what a curious bird,' holding
out what at first completely puzzled me. I saw a bird with a mass of splendid green feathers
on its breast, elongated into two glittering tufts; but, what I could not understand was a pair
of long white feathers, which stuck straight out from each shoulder. Ali assured me that the
bird stuck them out this way itself, when fluttering its wings, and that they had remained so
without his touching them. I now saw that I had got a great prize, no less than a completely
new form of the Bird of Paradise, differing most remarkably from every other known bird.
The general plumage is very sober, being a pure ashy olive, with a purplish tinge on the
back; the crown of the head is beautifully glossed with pale metallic violet, and the feathers
of the front extend as much over the beak as in most of the family. The neck and breast are
scaled with fine metallic green, and the feathers on the lower part are elongated on each
side, so as to form a two-pointed gorget, which can be folded beneath the wings, or partially
erected and spread out in the same way as the side plumes of most of the birds of paradise.
The four long white plumes which give the bird its altogether unique character, spring from
little tubercles close to the upper edge of the shoulder or bend of the wing; they are narrow,
gently curved, and equally webbed on both sides, of a pure creamy white colour. They are
about six inches long, equalling the wing, and can be raised at right angles to it, or laid
along the body at the pleasure of the bird. The bill is horn colour, the legs yellow, and the
iris pale olive. This striking novelty has been named by Mr. G. R. Gray of the British Mu-
seum, Semioptera Wallacei, or 'Wallace's Standard wing.'
A few days later I obtained an exceedingly beautiful new butterfly, allied to the fine blue
Papilio Ulysses, but differing from it in the colour being of a more intense tint, and in hav-
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