Five voyages to
different parts of the district they inhabit, each occupying in
its preparation and execution the larger part of a year, produced
me only five species out of the fourteen known to exist in the
New Guinea district.
The kinds obtained are those that inhabit
the coasts of New Guinea and its islands, the remainder seeming
to be strictly confined to the central mountain-ranges of the
northern peninsula; and our researches at Dorey and Amberbaki,
near one end of this peninsula, and at Salwatty and Sorong, near
the other, enable me to decide with some certainty on the native
country of these rare and lovely birds, good specimens of which
have never yet been seen in Europe.
It must be considered as somewhat extraordinary that, during five
years' residence and travel in Celebes, the Moluccas, and New
Guinea, I should never have been able to purchase skins of half
the species which Lesson, forty years ago, obtained during a few
weeks in the same countries. I believe that all, except the
common species of commerce, are now much more difficult to obtain
than they were even twenty years ago; and I impute it principally
to their having been sought after by the Dutch officials through
the Sultan of Tidore. The chiefs of the annual expeditions to
collect tribute have had orders to get all the rare sorts of
Paradise Birds; and as they pay little or nothing for them (it
being sufficient to say they are for the Sultan), the head men of
the coast villages would for the future refuse to purchase them
from the mountaineers, and confine themselves instead to the
commoner species, which are less sought after by amateurs, but
are a more profitable merchandise. The same causes frequently
lead the inhabitants of uncivilized countries to conceal minerals
or other natural products with which they may become acquainted,
from the fear of being obliged to pay increased tribute, or of
bringing upon themselves a new and oppressive labour.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PAPUAN ISLANDS.
NEW GUINEA, with the islands joined to it by a shallow sea,
constitute the Papuan group, characterised by a very close
resemblance in their peculiar forms of life. Having already, in
my chapters on the Aru Islands and on the Birds of Paradise,
given some details of the natural history of this district, I
shall here confine myself to a general sketch of its animal
productions, and of their relations to those of the rest of the
world.
New Guinea is perhaps the largest island on the globe, being a
little larger than Borneo. It is nearly fourteen hundred miles
long, and in the widest part four hundred broad, and seems to be
everywhere covered with luxuriant forests. Almost everything that
is yet known of its natural productions comes from the north-
western peninsula, and a few islands grouped around it. These do
not constitute a tenth part of the area of the whole island, and
are so cut off from it, that their fauna may well he somewhat
different; yet they have produced us (with a very partial
exploration) no less than two hundred and fifty species of land
birds, almost all unknown elsewhere, and comprising some of the
most curious and most beautiful of the feathered tribes. It is
needless to say how much interest attaches to the far larger
unknown portion of this great island, the greatest terra
incognita that still remains for the naturalist to explore, and
the only region where altogether new and unimagined forms of life
may perhaps be found. There is now, I am happy to say, some
chance that this great country will no longer remain absolutely
unknown to us. The Dutch Government have granted well-equipped
steamer to carry a naturalist (Mr. Rosenberg, already mentioned
in this work) and assistants to New Guinea, where they are to
spend some years in circumnavigating the island, ascending its
large rivers a< far as possible into the interior, and making
extensive collections of its natural productions.
The Mammalia of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, yet
discovered, are only seventeen in number. Two of these are bats,
one is a pig of a peculiar species (Sus papuensis), and the rest
are all marsupials. The bats are, no doubt, much more numerous,
but there is every reason to believe that whatever new land
Mammalia man be discovered will belong to the marsupial order.
One of these is a true kangaroo, very similar to some of middle-
sized kangaroos of Australia, and it is remarkable as being the
first animal of the kind ever seen by Europeans. It inhabits
Mysol and the Aru Islands (an allied species being found in New
Guinea), and was seen and described by Le Brun in 1714, from
living specimens at Batavia. A much more extraordinary creature
is the tree-kangaroo, two species of which are known from New
Guinea. These animals do not differ very strikingly in form from
the terrestrial kangaroos, and appear to be but imperfectly
adapted to an arboreal life, as they move rather slowly, and do
not seem to have a very secure footing on the limb of a tree. The
leaping power of the muscular tail is lost, and powerful claws
have been acquired to assist in climbing, but in other respects
the animal seems better adapted to walls on terra firma. This
imperfect adaptation may be due to the fact of there being no
carnivore in New Guinea, and no enemies of any kind from which
these animals have to escape by rapid climbing. Four species of
Cuscus, and the small flying opossum, also inhabit New Guinea;
and there are five other smaller marsupials, one of which is the
size of a rat, and takes its place by entering houses and
devouring provisions.
The birds of New Guinea offer the greatest possible contrast to
the Mammalia, since they are more numerous, more beautiful, and
afford more new, curious, and elegant forms than those of any
other island on the globe.
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