entangled and caught in them, as in artificial nets. A
grave gentleman in London observed to me one day how
much he was surprized to find so marvellous an account of
the strength of spider-webs inserted in so valuable a book as
the Authentic Account of an Embassy to China. On being
told that I could inform him of something not less marvellous
respecting the spiders who made them, which was that the
nails of their fore claws were so large and strong, that it was
a common practice in Batavia to have them mounted on gold
or silver handles, and to use them as tooth-picks, I have little
doubt he was ready to exclaim with Gay,
“ The man who with undaunted toils
“ Sails unknown seas to unknown soils,
“ What various -wonders feast his sight,
“ What stranger wonders does he write I”
I t is scarcely necessary to add that the forests and the
mountains of Java produce an immense number and variety
of the feathered race, from the large cassowary or emeu to
the minute humming bird little larger than the common bee ;
and though the plumage of the birds of Java may not perhaps
be put in competition with that of the feathered race of South
America, which taken collectively are unquestionably the most
splendid in the world, yet many of the loories and paroquets
are here singularly beautiful. Of that elegant bird the Argus
pheasant we procured a number of perfect specimens, but it is
said to be rarely brought alive out of the woods. The fire-
backed pheasant, the crowned pigeon, thej?ulica Porphyrio,
the several birds of Paradise, the various species of Oriolus
or golden thrush, and of the Alcedo or kingfisher, and, to descend
to the smaller kinds, as the Java sparrows or rice
birds and the avadavat, are sufficiently beautiful to deserve
a distinguished place in the class of the animal kingdom to
which they belong.
Having thus taken a very superficial view of the most
striking productions of Java, I shall, in the next chapter,
attempt to pencil out a few general outlines of the character
and features of the' various nations by which the city of
Batavia is inhabited. * >
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