If I Only Kept What Was Beautiful, They Might
Perhaps Comprehend It; But To See Ants And Files And Small
Ugly
insects put away so carefully was a great puzzle to them, and
they were convinced that there must be
Some medical or magical
use for them which I kept a profound secret. These people were in
fact as completely unacquainted with civilized life as the
Indians of the Rocky Mountains, or the savages of Central Africa-
-yet a steamship, that highest triumph of human ingenuity, with
its little floating epitome of European civilization, touches
monthly at Cajeli, twenty miles off; while at Amboyna, only sixty
miles distant, a European population and government have been
established for more than three hundred years.
Having seen a good many of the natives of Bouru from different
villages, and from distant parts of the island, I feel convinced
that they consist of two distinct races now partially
amalgamated. The larger portion are Malays of the Celebes type,
often exactly similar to the Tomóre people of East Celebes, whom
I found settled in Batchian; while others altogether resemble the
Alfuros of Ceram.
The influx of two races can easily be accounted for. The Sula
Islands, which are closely connected with East Celebes, approach
to within forty miles of the north coast of Bouru, while the
island of Manipa offers an easy point of departure for the people
of Ceram. I was confirmed in this view by finding that the
languages of Bouru possessed distinct resemblances to that of
Sula, as well as to those of Ceram.
Soon after we had arrived at Waypoti, Ali had seen a beautiful
little bird of the genus Pitta, which I was very anxious to
obtain, as in almost every island the species are different, and
none were yet known from Bourn. He and my other hunter continued
to see it two or three times a week, and to hear its peculiar
note much oftener, but could never get a specimen, owing to its
always frequenting the most dense thorny thickets, where only
hasty glimpses of it could be obtained, and at so short a
distance that it would be difficult to avoid blowing the bird to
pieces. Ali was very much annoyed that he could not get a
specimen of 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 but 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 collections 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 luxuriant 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 kingfishers, Tanysiptera acis and Ceyx Cajeli; a
beautiful sunbird, Nectarines proserpina; a handsome little black
and white flycatcher, Monarcha loricata, whose swelling throat
was beautifully scaled with metallic blue; and several of less
interest. I also obtained a skull of the babirusa, one specimen
of which was killed by native hunters during my residence at
Cajeli.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MOLUCCAS.
THE Moluccas consist of three large islands, Gilolo, Ceram, and
Bouru, the two former being each about two hundred miles long;
and a great number of smaller isles and islets, the most
important of which are Batchian, Morty, Obi, Ke, Timor-Laut, and
Amboyna; and among the smaller ones, Ternate, Tidore, Kaióa, and
Banda. They occupy a space of ten degrees of latitude by eight of
longitude, and they are connected by groups of small islets to
New Guinea on the east, the Philippines on the north, Celebes on
the west, and Timor on the south. It will be as well to bear in
mind these main features of extent and geographical position,
while we survey their animal productions and discuss their
relations to the countries which surround them on every side in
almost equal proximity.
We will first consider the Mammalia or warm-blooded quadrupeds,
which present us with some singular anomalies. The land mammals
are exceedingly few in number, only ten being yet known from the
entire group. The bats or aerial mammals, on the other hand, are
numerous - not less than twenty-five species being already known.
But even this exceeding poverty of terrestrial mammals does not
at all represent the real poverty of the Moluccas in this class
of animals; for, as we shall soon see, there is good reason to
believe that several of the species have been introduced by man,
either purposely or by accident.
The only quadrumanous animal in the group is the curious baboon-
monkey, Cynopithecus nigrescens, already described as being one
of the characteristic animals of Celebes. This is found only in
the island of Batchian; and it seems so much out of place there
as it is difficult to imagine how it could have reached the
island by any natural means of dispersal, and yet not have passed
by the same means over the narrow strait to Gilolo - that it seems
more likely to have originated from some individuals which had
escaped from confinement, these and similar animals being often
kept as pets by the Malays, and carried about in their praus.
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