Report on a small collection of Birds from Merauke, southern New Guinea

Some time ago Dr. J. C. Koningsberger of Buitenzorg forwarded me for determination a part of the collection of birdskins made by the Dutch detachment of exploration in the neighbourhood of Merauke between June 1907 and March 1908. The skins are not dated, but only sexed; the collection contains however interesting specimens. I give here, in addition to my paper in Nova Guinea, Vol. IX, p. 51, a list of the examples, which are in my hands. I am very sorry, that they form only the smaller half of the collection, the larger part is still in the Buitenzorg Museum and most unfortunately the skins have already been stuffed, though they have not been determined by a competent person. Dr. L. F. de Beaufort, when being at Buitenzorg in November 1909, has seen the birds and could give me only the sad informations, that the birds already are stuffed and that a good deal of them are unlabelled. He had no time to determine the birds and consequently, to send me a list of the specimens, but that among these examples are also interesting ones can be concluded from his statement, that the collection contains also two cranes. A crane is as yet not known from New Guinea; probably it will be Grus australasiana Gould. The collection, which I have here in Leyden, contains 29 specimens, belonging to 19 forms, one of which, Oriolus sagittata magnirostris, is new to science