grubs of the palm-beetles (Calandra) are regularly brought to market in bamboos
and sold for food; and many of the great horned Lamellicorn beetles are slightly
roasted on the embers and eaten whenever met with. The superabundance of
insect life is therefore turned to some account by these islanders.
Finding that birds were not very numerous, and hearing much of Labuan
Tring at the southern extremity of the bay, where there was said to be much
uncultivated country and plenty of birds as well as deer and wild pigs, I
determined to go there with my two servants, Ali, the Malay lad from Borneo,
and Manuel, a Portuguese of Malacca accustomed to bird-skinning. I hired a
native boat with outriggers to take us with our small quantity of luggage, and a
day's rowing and tracking along the shore brought us to the place.
I had a note of introduction to an Amboynese Malay, and obtained the use of
part of his house to live and work in. His name was "Inchi Daud" (Mr. David),
and he was very civil; but his accommodations were limited, and he could only
hire me part of his reception-room. This was the front part of a bamboo house
(reached by a ladder of about six rounds very wide apart), and having a beautiful
view over the bay. However, I soon made what arrangements were possible, and
then set to work. The country around was pretty and novel to me, consisting of
abrupt volcanic hills enclosing flat valleys or open plains. The hills were covered
with a dense scrubby bush of bamboos and prickly trees and shrubs, the plains
were adorned with hundreds of noble palm-trees, and in many places with a
luxuriant shrubby vegetation. Birds were plentiful and very interesting, and I
now saw for the first time many Australian forms that are quite absent from the
islands westward. Small white cockatoos were abundant, and their loud screams,
conspicuous white colour, and pretty yellow crests, rendered them a very
important feature in the landscape. This is the most westerly point on the globe
where any of the family are to be found. Some small honeysuckers of the genus
Ptilotis, and the strange moundmaker (Megapodius gouldii), are also here first
met with on the traveller's journey eastward. The last mentioned bird requires a
fuller notice.
The Megapodidae are a small family of birds found only in Australia and the
surrounding islands, but extending as far as the Philippines and Northwest
Borneo. They are allied to the gallinaceous birds, but differ from these and from
all others in never sitting upon their eggs, which they bury in sand, earth, or
rubbish, and leave to be hatched by the heat of the sun or by fermentation. They
are all characterised by very large feet and long curved claws, and most of the
species of Megapodius rake and scratch together all kinds of rubbish, dead
leaves, sticks, stones, earth, rotten wood, etc., until they form a large mound,