is most significant is that this is the only
bird of paradise to come from Maluku as
all the others come from Aru, Waigeo,
Papua New Guinea or Northern Australia.
Wallace’s standardwing proved to be so
rare that in the following century the bird
was only seen once again.
Wallace also describes seeing on
Bacan the small flying opossum which
is quite like a small flying squirrel
in appearance but is a marsupial.
Marsupials, in the form of the cuscus or
possum, were common throughout the
Moluccan islands and were first described
by the Portuguese when they arrived in
Ambon and Ternate in the 1500s. This
description by the Portuguese captain
in Ternate (1536–40) has come from the
Jesuit Library in Seville:Some animals resemble ferrets, only a little
bigger. They are called ‘kuskus’. They have a
long tail with which they hang from trees in which they live continuously, winding it once
or twice around a branch. On their belly they have a pocket and as soon as they give birth
to a young one they grow it inside there at a nipple until it does not need nursing any more.
As soon as she has born and nourished it, the mother becomes pregnant again. The people
eat them like rabbits, seasoned with spices.Wallace’s last and most difficult voyage to Papua was in a small prahu which
he had built in Goram (the Gorong Islands south-east of Ceram) and fitted out to
accommodate six men including four crew, an Ambonese hunter and himself. His
faithful assistant Ali had recently married in Ternate and it appears that he had chosen
not to join Wallace on this expedition. From Goram, Wallace sailed to the north
coast of Ceram where for whatever reason his crew deserted him. After hiring a new
crew they sailed north with much difficulty against the prevailing winds and currents
towards the island of Waigeo in Papua. Here he stayed for two months and collected
twenty-four specimens of the rare red bird of paradise, which according to Wallace
only inhabits this island and nowhere else.
Wallace’s standardwing, Semioptera wallacii, John
Jennens,1860
(^170) Where Australia Collides with Asia
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