Species, not more than
twelve feet high, and they gave not the least idea of the supreme
beauty of trees bearing their elegant heads of fronds more than
thirty feet in the air, like those which were plentifully
scattered about this forest. There is nothing in tropical
vegetation so perfectly beautiful.
My boys shot five sorts of birds, none of which we had obtained
during a month's shooting in Wamma. Two were very pretty
flycatchers, already known from New Guinea; one of them (Monarcha
chrysomela), of brilliant black and bright orange colours, is by
some authors considered to be the most beautiful of all
flycatchers; the other is pure white and velvety black, with a
broad fleshy ring round the eye of are azure blue colour; it is
named the "spectacled flycatcher" (Monarcha telescopthalma), and
was first found in New Guinea, along with the other, by the
French naturalists during the voyage of the discovery-ship
Coquille.
Feb. 18th. - Before leaving Macassar, I had written to the
Governor of Amboyna requesting him to assist me with the native
chiefs of Aru. I now received by a
vessel which had arrived from Amboyna a very polite answer
informing me that orders had been sent to give me every
assistance that I might require; and I was just congratulating
myself on being at length able to get a boat and men to go to the
mainland and explore the interior, when a sudden check carne in
the form of a piratical incursion.
