sunshine in the morning, and I took advantage of these to explore the roads and
paths, the rocks and ravines, in search of insects. These were not very abundant,
yet I saw enough to convince me that the locality was a good one, had I been
there at the beginning instead of at the end of the dry season. The natives
brought me daily a few insects obtained at the Sagueir palms, including some
fine Cetonias and stag-beetles. Two little boys were very expert with the
blowpipe, and brought me a good many small birds, which they shot with pellets
of clay. Among these was a pretty little flower-pecker of a new species
(Prionochilus aureolimbatus), and several of the loveliest honeysuckers I had yet
seen. My general collection of birds was, however, almost at a standstill; for
though I at length obtained a man to shoot for me, he was not good for much,
and seldom brought me more than one bird a day. The best thing he shot was the
large and rare fruit-pigeon peculiar to Northern Celebes (Carpophaga forsteni),
which I had long been seeking.
I was myself very successful in one beautiful group of insects, the tiger-
beetles, which seem more abundant and varied here than anywhere else in the
Archipelago. I first met with them on a cutting in the road, where a hard clayey
bank was partially overgrown with mosses and small ferns. Here, I found
running about, a small olive-green species which never took flight; and more
rarely, a fine purplish black wingless insect, which was always found motionless
in crevices, and was therefore, probably nocturnal. It appeared to me to form a
new genus. About the roads in the forest, I found the large and handsome
Cicindela heros, which I had before obtained sparingly at Macassar; but it was in
the mountain torrent of the ravine itself that I got my finest things. On dead
trunks overhanging the water and on the banks and foliage, I obtained three very
pretty species of Cicindela, quite distinct in size, form, and colour, but having an
almost identical pattern of pale spots. I also found a single specimen of a most
curious species with very long antennae. But my finest discovery here was the
Cicindela gloriosa, which I found on mossy stones just rising above the water.
After obtaining my first specimen of this elegant insect, I used to walk up the
stream, watching carefully every moss-covered rock and stone. It was rather shy,
and would often lead me on a long chase from stone to stone, becoming invisible
every time it settled on the damp moss, owing to its rich velvety green colour.
On some days I could only catch a few glimpses of it; on others I got a single
specimen; and on a few occasions two, but never without a more or less active
pursuit. This and several other species I never saw but in this one ravine.
Among the people here I saw specimens of several types, which, with the
peculiarities of the languages, gives me some notion of their probable origin. A