Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
this bird, in going after which he had already severely wounded his feet with thorns; and
when we had only two days more to stay, he went of his own accord one evening to sleep at
a little hut in the forest some miles off, in order to have a last try for it at daybreak, when
many birds come out to feed, and are very intent on their morning meal. The next evening
he brought me home two specimens, one with the head blown completely off, and otherwise
too much injured to preserve, the other in very good order, and which I at once saw to be a
new species, very like the Pitta celebensis, but ornamented with a square patch of bright red
on the nape of the neck.
The next day after securing this prize we returned to Cajeli, and packing up my collec-
tions left Bouru by the steamer. During our two days' stay at Ternate, I took on board what
baggage I had left there, and bade adieu to all my friends. We then crossed over to Menado,
on our way to Macassar and Java, and I finally quitted the Moluccas, among whose luxuri-
ant and beautiful islands I had wandered for more than three years.
My collections in Bouru, though not extensive, were of considerable interest; for out of
sixty-six species of birds which I collected there, no less than seventeen were new, or had
not been previously found in any island of the Moluccas. Among these were two kingfish-
ers, Tanysiptera acis and Ceyx Cajeli; a beautiful sunbird, Nectarinea proserpina; a hand-
some little black and white flycatcher, Monarcha loricata, whose swelling throat was beauti-
fully scaled with metallic blue; and several of less interest. I also obtained a skull of the ba-
birusa, one specimen of which was killed by native hunters during my residence at Cajeli.
