It Was In Such
Places As These That I Obtained Many Of My Most Beautiful Small
Butterflies, Such As Sospita Statira And Taxila Pulchra, The
Gorgeous Blue Amblypodia Hercules, And Many Others.
On the skirts
of the plantations I found the handsome blue Deudorix despoena,
and in the shady woods the lovely Lycaena wallacei.
Here, too, I
obtained the beautiful Thyca aruna, of the richest orange on the
upper side; while below it is intense crimson and glossy black;
and a superb specimen of a green Ornithoptera, absolutely fresh
and perfect, and which still remains one of the glories of my
cabinet.
My collection of birds, though not very rich in number of
species, was yet very interesting. I got another specimen of the
rare New Guinea kite (Henicopernis longicauda), a large new
goatsucker (Podargus superciliaris), and a most curious ground-
pigeon of an entirely new genus, and remarkable for its long and
powerful bill. It has been named Henicophaps albifrons. I was
also much pleased to obtain a fine series of a large fruit-pigeon
with a protuberance on the bill (Carpophaga tumida), and to
ascertain that this was not, as had been hitherto supposed, a
sexual character, but was found equally in male and female birds.
I collected only seventy-three species of birds in Waigiou, but
twelve of them were entirely new, and many others very rare; and
as I brought away with me twenty-four fine specimens of the
Paradisea rubra, I did not regret my visit to the island,
although it had by no means answered my expectations.
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