and Ocellated pheasants of those islands are equally unknown
in Java. Exactly parallel is the fact that in Ceylon
and Southern India, where the peacock abounds, there are
none of the splended Lophophori and other gorgeous
pheasants which inhabit Northern India. It would seem
as if the peacock can admit of no rivals in its domain.
Were these birds rare in their native country, and unknown
alive in Europe, they would assuredly be considered as
the true princes of the feathered tribes, and altogether
unrivalled for stateliness and beauty. As it is, I suppose
scarcely any one if asked to fix upon the most beautiful'
bird in the world would name the peacock, any more
than the Papuan savage or the Bugis trader would fix
upon the bird of paradise for the same honour.
Three days after my arrival at Wonosalem, my friend
Mr. Ball came to pay me a visit. He told me that two
evenings before, a boy had been killed and eaten by a tiger
close to Modjo-agong. He was riding on a cart drawn by
bullocks, and was coming home about dusk on the main
road; and when not half a mile from the village a tiger
sprang upon him, carried him off into the jungle close by,
and devoured him. Next morning his remains were discovered,
consisting only of a few mangled bones. The
Waidono had got together about seven hundred men, and
was in chase of the animal, which, I afterwards heard,
they found and killed. They only use spears when in
pursuit of a tiger in this way. They surround a large tract
of country, and draw gradually together till the animal is
enclosed in a compact ring of armed men. When he sees
there is no escape he generally makes a spring, and is
received on a dozen spears, and almost instantly stabbed
to death. The skin of an animal thus killed is, of course,
worthless, and in this case the skull, which I had begged
Mr. Ball to secure for me, was hacked to pieces to divide
the teeth, which are worn as charms.
After a week at Wonosalem, I returned to the foot of
•the mountain, to a village named Djapannan, which was
surrounded by several patches of forest, and seemed altogether
pretty well suited to my pursuits. The chief of
the village had prepared two small bamboo rooms on
one side of his own courtyard to accommodate me, and
seemed inclined to assist me as much as he could. The
weather was exceedingly hot and dry, no rain having
fallen for several months, and there was, in consequence,
a great scarcity of insects, and especially of beetles. I
therefore devoted myself chiefly to obtaining a good set of
the birds, and succeeded in making a tolerable collection.
All the peacocks we had hitherto shot had had short or
imperfect tails, but I now obtained two magnificent specimens
more than seven feet long, one of wThich I preserved
entire, while I kept the train only attached to the tail of
two or three others. When this bird is seen feeding on