the natives assert that the seed was brought there
from Java by one of the sovereigns of Tañóte. It is
therefore uncertain whether the teak is a native of
this island. In the early morning, and again soon
after sunset, flocks of large green parrots, Tanyg-
nathus macrorynchns, Wagl., come to these trees
to feed on the fruit which is now ripe. They are so
wary that it is extremely difficult to get near them,
especially as the large dry leaves of this tree cover
the ground and continually crack and rustle beneath
one’s feet. To see these magnificent birds flying
back and forth in the highest glee, while they remain
unconscious of danger, is a grand sight, and it
seems little less than absolute wickedness to shoot
one, even when it is to be made the subject, not of
idle gazing, but of careful study, and it requires still
greater resolution to put an end to one’s admiration
and pull the fatal trigger. When one of these birds
has been wounded, its mate, and sometimes the whole
flock, hearing its cries, at once comes back, as if hoping
to relieve its misery.
In many places in this vicinity the tall canari-
tree is seen raising its high crest, and there flocks of
cream-colored doves, GarpopJmga lucPiwsa, gathei
to feed on its fruit. Their loud, continuous cooing
leads the hunter a long way through the jungle.
Among the limbs of the lower trees are seen the
long-tailed doves, Ga/rpopTiaqa perspiclata. On the
banks of the dry brook, near our house, are bunches
of bamboos, through which flit fly-catchers, Mus-
cicapidce, and the beautiful Mona/rcka loricata, a
slender bird about as large as a martin, of a blue
above, and a pure, almost silvery white beneath, except
on the throat, which is covered with scale-like
feathers, of a rich metallic blue-black. So far as is
known, this beautiful bird is only found on this
island. In the bushes and shrubbery is constantly
heard the cheerful note of a bird, the Trobidorynchus
bouruensis, somewhat larger than our robin. By
day I enjoyed this Robinson Crusoe life very much,
but the mosquitoes proved such a torment by night
that we could scarcely sleep. A great smouldering
fire was made under our hut, but its only effect was
to increase our misery, and make the mosquitoes
more bloodthirsty. We were frequently disturbed
also by several yellow dogs, which came to crunch
what chicken-bones the cook had thrown away, and
to upset every thing around the house that was not
already in a state of stable equilibrium. Afterward,
when all was still, occasionally a heavy crash sighed
through the deep woods, caused by the falling of
some old tree, whose roots had been slowly consumed
by the fires that prevail in the neighborhood
during the dry season.
At the end of a week my hunter had preserved
the skins of sixty-three beautiful birds, including
specimens of six species that I had not secured
before. We now returned to Kayffii; and though
there were only eight white persons in the whole
place, I could nevertheless feel that I was returning
to civilization, and that I could speak some other
language than Malay.
The village of Kayeli is really composed of eleven
separate parts, or Jcampongs, all situated on a low,