The First Thing I Saw Here Was A Flock Of Small
Parroquets, Of Which I Shot A Pair, And Was Pleased To Find A
Most Beautiful Little Long-Tailed Bird, Ornamented With Green,
Red, And Blue Colours, And Quite New To Me.
It was a variety of
the Charmosyna placentis, one of the smallest and most elegant of
the brush-tongued lories.
My hunters soon shot me several other
fine birds, and I myself found a specimen of the rare and
beautiful day-flying moth, Cocytia d'Urvillei.
The village of Djilolo was formerly the chief residence of the
Sultans of Ternate, till about eighty years ago, when at the
request of the Dutch they removed to their present abode. The
place was then no doubt much more populous, as is indicated by
the wide extent of cleared land in the neighbourhood, now covered
with coarse high grass, very disagreeable to walk through, and
utterly barren to the naturalist. A few days' exploring showed me
that only some small patches of forest remained for miles wound,
and the result was a scarcity of insects and a very limited
variety of birds, which obliged me to change my locality. There
was another village called Sahoe, to which there was a road of
about twelve miles overland, and this had been recommended to me
as a good place for birds, and as possessing a large population
both of Mahomotans and Alfuros, which latter race I much wished
to see. I set off one morning to examine this place myself,
expecting to pass through some extent of forest on my way.
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