During the two days that we remained here, I walked out into the surrounding
country to catch insects, shoot birds, and spy out the nakedness or fertility of the
land. I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years
later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well cultivated a district out of Europe.
A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles
inland, where it is bounded by a wide range of wooded and cultivated hills.
Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of cocoa-nut palms, tamarind
and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them
extend luxuriant rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that
would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe. The whole surface of
the country is divided into irregular patches, following the undulations of the
ground, from many acres to a few perches in extent, each of which is itself
perfectly level, but stands a few inches or several feet above or below those
adjacent to it. Every one of these patches can be flooded or drained at will by
means of a system of ditches and small channels, into which are diverted the
whole of the streams that descend from the mountains. Every patch now bore
crops in various stages of growth, some almost ready for cutting, and all in the
most flourishing condition and of the most exquisite green tints.
The sides of the lanes and bridle roads were often edged with prickly Cacti
and a leafless Euphorbia, but the country being so highly cultivated there was
not much room for indigenous vegetation, except upon the sea-beach. We saw
plenty of the fine race of domestic cattle descended from the Bos banteng of
Java, driven by half naked boys, or tethered in pasture-grounds. They are large
and handsome animals, of a light brown colour, with white legs, and a
conspicuous oval patch behind of the same colour. Wild cattle of the same race
are said to be still found in the mountains. In so well-cultivated a country it was
not to be expected that I could do much in natural history, and my ignorance of
how important a locality this was for the elucidation of the geographical
distribution of animals, caused me to neglect obtaining some specimens which I
never met with again. One of these was a weaver bird with a bright yellow head,
which built its bottle-shaped nests by dozens on some trees near the beach. It
was the Ploceus hypoxantha, a native of Java; and here, at the extreme limits of
its range westerly, I shot and preserved specimens of a wagtail-thrush, an oriole,
and some starlings, all species found in Java, and some of them peculiar to that
island. I also obtained some beautiful butterflies, richly marked with black and
orange on a white ground, and which were the most abundant insects in the
country lanes. Among these was a new species, which I have named Pieris
tamar.