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Show 48 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON BIRDS FROM TIMOR-LAUT. [Feb. 20, A communication was read from Mr. G. B. Sowerby, jun., containing the descriptions of nine new species of shells and of the opercula of two known species. The following papers were read : - 1. On Birds collected in the Timor-Laut or Tenimber Group of Islands by Mr. Henry O. Forbes. By P. L. SCLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. [Received February 19, 1883.] (Plates XI.-XIV.) I have now the pleasure of placing before the meeting the first-fruits of the expedition to the Timor-Laut, or Tenimber, group of islands, carried out by Mr. Henry O. Forbes under the auspices of the British Association1 last summer. They consist of a selection from Mr. Forbes's series of birds containing 70 skins, referable to 55 species, being the only portion of his collections that has yet reached England. Mr. Forbes passed about three months (July, August, and September last) in the Tenimber group. The following extracts from his MS. report will show some of the difficulties which he experienced in commencing his collections:- " After an interesting voyage, in which we called at Jessier at the eastern end of Ceram, at two points of New Guinea (where I had an opportunity of going ashore and seeing the people), and at both the Ke and Aroo islands, we landed at the village of Ritabel, in the islet of Larat, which lies off the north-east coast of Yamdena (as the northern of the two portions of Timor Laut is named), at a distance of about fifteen minutes' sail. Within an hour after landing us the 'Amboina' steamed away, leaving us to our fate for the next three months. " Our first walk to the outskirts of Larat brought us face to face with the rather disagreeable fact that the place was in a state of siege. The whole village was enclosed with a double row of palisades ; and the ground on every spot, where not absolutely devoid of vegetation, bristled with bayonet-shaped bamboos pointing in every direction. This was for protection against two neighbouring villages, Keleobar and Lamdesar, one to the right and the other to the lett of us, who every now and then had been making midnight raids and sudden day-attacks on the Ritabel people, picking off with flintlock and arrow every unsuspecting villager, and then making off. The dismembered bodies of the victims of these expeditions were to be seen swinging about in the breeze from the limbs of the trees near the village-gates, and dangling from pole-ends on the platforms erected 1 See Reports of the Timor-Laut Committee in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1881, p. 197, and 1882, p.,275. |
