APPENDIX A
NOTES ON THE BIRDS COLLECTED; BY THE B.O.U. EXPEDITION TO DUTCH NEW GUINEA
By W. R. OGILVIE-GRANT
Our knowledge of the Birds of New Guinea is based mainly on Count T. Salvadori’s monumental work Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molluche, which appeared in three large volumes in 1880-82, and on his Aggiunte to the above work published in three parts in 1887-89. Since that date our knowledge of the avi-fauna has vastly increased and a very large number of splendid Birds-of-Paradise and other remarkable new species have been discovered.
A list of the principal works subsequently published, placed in chronological order, will be found at the end of this chapter, the most important papers being no doubt those by the Hon. Walter Rothschild and Dr. E. Hartert, which have appeared from time to time in the Tring Museum periodical Novitates Zoologicæ. Mr. Rothschild is to be congratulated on the success which has attended the efforts of his various collectors in New Guinea and on the energy which he has displayed in obtaining birds from unknown districts of the most interesting island in the world.
To give in a single chapter a brief and partly scientific, partly popular, summary of the ornithological work accomplished by our Expedition in Dutch New Guinea is a more difficult task than might be imagined, for there is not only an immense number of species to be dealt with, but in most instances very little is known about their habits. The jungles of South-western New Guinea are so dense that white men can scarcely traverse them, and most of the collecting had to be done by the trained natives from the Malay Peninsula, kindly supplied by Mr. H. C. Robinson, and by the Gurkhas who accompanied the Expedition.
By dealing with each family in turn, I shall endeavour to refer to all the more important species in the collection in their proper scientific order, briefly describing some of the more beautiful, so that those without any special knowledge of birds may, if they care to do so, form some idea of the marvellous types which have been brought home from the interior of South-western New Guinea.
It is certain that the resources of that wonderful island are not nearly exhausted: on the contrary, every fresh collecting expedition sent to the interior produces remarkable novelties, and large chains of high mountains are still unexplored. The members of our Expedition were fortunate in procuring no less than 2,200 skins of birds in New Guinea, representing about 235 species, of which ten proved to be new to Science. A number of new birds were also obtained by the late Mr. Wilfred Stalker in the mountains of Ceram, which he visited before joining the main Expedition at Amboina. His premature death by drowning, a few days after he landed in New Guinea, was an immense loss to the Expedition, though his place was ably filled by Mr. Claude Grant, who worked with his characteristic zeal and enthusiasm.
It will be noticed that the great bulk of the birds inhabiting New Guinea belong to a comparatively small number of families, but that each of these is represented by a large number of different species, especially in such groups as the Pigeons, Parrots, Flycatchers, and Honey-eaters.
Amongst the Pigeons of which no fewer than twenty-seven different kinds were obtained, it would seem as though, in some instances at least, Nature had almost come to the end of her resources in devising new and wonderful arrangements of colour and markings; for in some of the smaller Fruit-Pigeons, such as Ptilopus gestroi and P. zonurus we find two perfectly distinct species, occurring side by side, possessing almost exactly the same remarkable scheme of colouration, and only differing in certain minor points to be found in the markings of the wing-coverts. Another very similar instance is to be seen in Ptilopus coronulatus and P. nanus almost the same colours and pattern being repeated in both.
The collection obtained by our expedition is a very valuable one, and has added many new and interesting forms of bird-life to the incomparable series in the Natural History Museum, to which the bulk of the specimens have been presented by the subscribers. A large proportion of the birds were obtained at low elevations from sea-level to 2,000 feet, only a comparatively small number being procured at from 3000-4000 feet. It is to be regretted that the immense physical difficulties encountered and other causes prevented our collectors from reaching a higher zone between 5000 and 10,000 feet, where no doubt much of interest remains to be discovered by those who are fortunate enough to get there.