properties. One in particular with a smooth shining skin of a golden orange
colour rivals in appearance the golden apples of the Hesperides, and has great
attractions for many birds, from the white cockatoos to the little yellow
Zosterops, who feast on the crimson seeds which are displayed when the fruit
bursts open. The great palm called "Gubbong" by the natives, a species of
Corypha, is the most striking feature of the plains, where it grows by thousands
and appears in three different states—in leaf, in flower and fruit, or dead. It has a
lofty cylindrical stem about a hundred feet high and two to three feet in
diameter; the leaves are large and fan-shaped, and fall off when the tree flowers,
which it does only once in its life in a huge terminal spike, upon which are
produced masses of a smooth round fruit of a green colour and about an inch in
diameter. When these ripen and fall the tree dies, and remains standing a year or
two before it falls. Trees in leaf only are by far the most numerous, then those in
flower and fruit, while dead trees are scattered here and there among them. The
trees in fruit are the resort of the great green fruit pigeons, which have been
already mentioned. Troops of monkeys (Macacus cynomolgus) may often be
seen occupying a tree, showering down the fruit in great profusion, chattering
when disturbed and making an enormous rustling as they scamper off among the
dead palm leaves; while the pigeons have a loud booming voice more like the
roar of a wild beast than the note of a bird.
My collecting operations here were carried on under more than usual
difficulties. One small room had to serve for eating, sleeping and working, and
one for storehouse and dissecting-room; in it were no shelves, cupboards, chairs
or tables; ants swarmed in every part of it, and dogs, cats and fowls entered it at
pleasure. Besides this it was the parlour and reception-room of my host, and I
was obliged to consult his convenience and that of the numerous guests who
visited us. My principal piece of furniture was a box, which served me as a
dining table, a seat while skinning birds, and as the receptacle of the birds when
skinned and dried. To keep them free from ants we borrowed, with some
difficulty, an old bench, the four legs of which being placed in cocoa-nut shells
filled with water kept us tolerably free from these pests. The box and the bench
were, however, literally the only places where anything could be put away, and
they were generally well occupied by two insect boxes and about a hundred
birds' skins in process of drying. It may therefore be easily conceived that when
anything bulky or out of the common way was collected, the question "Where is
it to be put?" was rather a difficult one to answer. All animal substances
moreover require some time to dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeable odour
while doing so, and are particularly attractive to ants, flies, dogs, rats, cats, and