as many of the birds as I could, and found some which were very interesting.
Among them were five species of pigeons of as many distinct genera, and most
of them peculiar to the island; two parrots—the fine red-winged broad-tail
(Platycercus vulneratus), allied to an Australian species, and a green species of
the genus Geoffroyus. The Tropidorhynchus timorensis was as ubiquitous and as
noisy as I had found it at Lombock; and the Sphaecothera viridis, a curious green
oriole with bare red orbits, was a great acquisition. There were several pretty
finches, warblers, and flycatchers, and among them I obtained the elegant blue
and red Cyornis hyacinthina; but I cannot recognise among my collections the
species mentioned by Dampier, who seems to have been much struck by the
number of small songbirds in Timor. He says: "One sort of these pretty little
birds my men called the ringing bird, because it had six notes, and always
repeated all his notes twice, one after the other, beginning high and shrill and
ending low. The bird was about the bigness of a lark, having a small, sharp,
black bill and blue wings; the head and breast were of a pale red, and there was a
blue streak about its neck." In Semao, monkeys are abundant. They are the
common hare-lipped monkey (Macacus cynomolgus), which is found all over
the western islands of the Archipelago, and may have been introduced by
natives, who often carry it about captive. There are also some deer, but it is not
quite certain whether they are of the same species as are found in Java.
I arrived at Delli, the capital of the Portuguese possessions in Timor, on
January 12, 1861, and was kindly received by Captain Hart, an Englishman and
an old resident, who trades in the produce of the country and cultivates coffee on
an estate at the foot of the hills. With him I was introduced to Mr. Geach, a
mining-engineer who had been for two years endeavouring to discover copper in
sufficient quantity to be worth working.
Delli is a most miserable place compared with even the poorest of the Dutch
towns. The houses are all of mud and thatch; the fort is only a mud enclosure;
and the custom-house and church are built of the same mean materials, with no
attempt at decoration or even neatness. The whole aspect of the place is that of a
poor native town, and there is no sign of cultivation or civilization round about
it. His Excellency the Governor's house is the only one that makes any
pretensions to appearance, and that is merely a low whitewashed cottage or
bungalow. Yet there is one thing in which civilization exhibits itself—officials in
black and white European costume, and officers in gorgeous uniforms abound in
a degree quite disproportionate to the size or appearance of the place.
The town being surrounded for some distance by swamps and mudflats is very
unhealthy, and a single night often gives a fever to newcomers which not