esented by two long rigid glossy ribands, which
are black, thin, and semi-cylindrical, and droop gracefully in a
spiral curve. Several other interesting birds were obtained, and about
half-a-dozen quite new ones; but none of any remarkable beauty, except
the lovely little dove, Ptilonopus pulchellus, which with several
other pigeons I shot on the same fig-tree close to my house. It is of
a beautiful green colour above, with a forehead of the richest crimson,
while beneath it is ashy white and rich yellow, banded with violet red.

On the evening of our arrival at Muka I observed what appeared like a
display of Aurora Borealis, though I could hardly believe that this was
possible at a point a little south of the equator. The night was clear
and calm, and the northern sky presented a diffused light, with a
constant succession of faint vertical flashings or flickerings, exactly
similar to an ordinary aurora in England. The next day was fine, but
after that the weather was unprecedentedly bad, considering that it
ought to have been the dry monsoon. For near a month we had wet weather;
the sun either not appearing at all, or only for an hour or two about
noon. Morning and evening, as well as nearly all night, it rained or
drizzled, and boisterous winds, with dark clouds, formed the daily
programme. With the exception that it was never cold, it was just such
weather as a very bad English November or February.

The people of Waigiou are not truly indigenes of the island, which
possesses no "Alfuros," or aboriginal inhabitants. They appear to be
a mixed race, partly from Gilolo, partly from New Guinea. Malays and
Alfuros from the former island have probably settled here, and many of
them have taken Papuan wives from Salwatty or Dorey, while the influx of
people from those places, and of slaves, has led to the formation of a
tribe exhibiting almost all the transitions from a nearly pure Malayan
to an entirely Papuan type. The language spoken by them is entirely
Papuan, being that which is used on all the coasts of Mysol, Salwatty,
the north-west of New Guinea, and the islands in the great Geelvink
Bay,--a fact which indicates the way in which the coast settlements have
been formed. The fact that so many of the islands between New Guinea and
the Moluccas--such as Waigiou, Guebe, Poppa, Obi, Batchian, as well as
the south and east peninsulas of Gilolo--possess no aboriginal tribes,
but are inhabited by people who are evidently mong