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.