There is nothing in tropical vegetation so perfectly beautiful.
My boys shot five sorts of birds, none of which we had obtained during a month's shooting in Wamma.

Two were very pretty flycatchers, already known from New Guinea; one of them (Monarcha chrysomela), of brilliant black and bright orange colours, is by some authors considered to be the most beautiful of all flycatchers; the other is pure white and velvety black, with a broad fleshy ring round the eye of are azure blue colour; it is named the "spectacled flycatcher" (Monarcha telescopthalma), and was first found in New Guinea, along with the other, by the French naturalists during the voyage of the discovery-ship Coquille.
Feb.

18th .-- Before leaving Macassar, I had written to the Governor of Amboyna requesting him to assist me with the native chiefs of Aru.

I now received by a vessel which had arrived from Amboyna a very polite answer informing me that orders had been sent to give me every assistance that I might require; and I was just congratulating myself on being at length able to get a boat and men to go to the mainland and explore the interior, when a sudden check came in the form of a piratical incursion.

A small prau arrived which had been attacked by pirates and had a man wounded.