violently beating. We coasted along some distance until we found
a little cove, into which we ran the boat, hauled it on shore, and
emptying it found a large hole in the bottom, which had been temporarily
stopped up with a plug of cocoa-nut which had come out. Had we been a
quarter of a mile further off before we discovered the leak, we should
certainly have been obliged to throw most of our baggage overboard,
and might easily have lost our lives. After we had put all straight and
secure we again started, and when we were halfway across got into such a
strong current and high cross sea that we were very nearly being swamped
a second time, which made me vow never to trust myself again in such
small and miserable vessels.
The mail steamer did not arrive for a week, and I occupied myself in
getting 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
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